As I am writing this, a small unmanned craft called "Mangalyaan" is slicing its way through a highly elliptical orbit around Earth. This name: Mangalyaan - it translates to "Mars vehicle"... for the red planet is where it is headed.
The Indian Space Research Organization or ISRO is a somewhat malnourished scientific bureaucracy. It has been around for over 4 decades - which says something about the national leadership which wished it into existence. For obviously, a nation like India, bottom heavy with poverty, with food security still not a reality - there is always a question of priorities. And somehow, the national debate AND the international commentary cannot finish two sentences without mentioning the hundreds of millions of underfed children.
Let us talk some numbers, shall we? The Mars project has a price tag of 75 million $, give or take. The NREGA (which is a rural employment social services project) will cost the Indian taxpayer about 6.6 billion $. So in terms of absolute expenditure, this endeavour is more or less a drop in the bucket.
So what do we get for our money?
The development of some tech. People and governments tend to hoard knowledge and capabilities. It is probably worth noting that the most enthusiastic hoarders are almost never people who have had a hand in developing that knowledge - but are somehow custodians of the fruits of this knowledge.
Since most national leaderships tend to be hoarders, it makes good sense for all nations to develop their capabilities. Sure - it is great when people share... but what is they don't? And what if, even worse - you end up growing used to the benefits of someone else's wisdom and labour - and then one day the mat gets pulled out from under your feet. The sudden realization that you are nothing more than a client state without anything to offer or sell is going to hurt. So, India needs space tech. But what are we eventually going to do with it?
Sci-fi scenarios aside, we are limited to chemical rockets and rather pedestrian Newtonian velocities. But lookee here - the asteroid belt has unimaginable gigatonnes of metals just floating around. The rings of Saturn have more water than all the oceans of Earth. And lurking out there in the Oort cloud are comets, some of which are probably made of CHON. That means food.
If we can imagine these things - the day will come when we can harvest these riches. But baby steps at first. Mangalyaan is a tiny baby step. But a necessary one.
