Why Investing In Space Programs Is *NOT* A Waste Of Money
It’s for the greater good.
What Happened?
The historic SpaceX mission to launch two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station will happen on May 27 and this is the first time NASA astronauts will launch from the U.S on a rocket built in the U.S since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.
The launch is happening amid the pandemic and this might make a lot of people wonder whether space programs are really that important and how exactly do they help India? So, we decided to answer those questions!
The Big Giants Who Make Space Journeys Possible
Our space programs benefit a lot of Indian companies. To launch a PSLV vehicle, over 150 industries contribute to the process and HAL and L&T are major contributors to that. HAL, L&T and Godrej & Boyce also contributed the most to ISRO’s Mars mission in 2013.
Make In India Push
Due to our Make in India push, ISRO will soon procure most of its parts from Indian companies and of course, they will be manufactured in India, helping many Indian companies. In August 2019, ISRO invited expressions of interest from private Indian companies to build five Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLVs) and this offer is open only for Indian companies and not for foreign firms.
Startups & Space
- AgniKul Cosmos, a Chennai-based startup is developing its Agnibaan orbital launch vehicle, which will be able to carry up to 100kg to a 700km Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
- Bengaluru-based Bellatrix Aerospace is making its launch vehicle Chetak which can take 50kg to a 700km Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO), with a reusable first stage, and an expendable second stage with a multiple restart capability.
- Another Bengaluru-based startup called Astrogate Labs is planning to revamp the space-to-ground communications systems, from the current radio and microwave technology to optical.
- Hyderabad-based Dhruva Space is looking to make satellites for any application.
With satellites getting smaller and the government taking more initiative to encourage local production, the space is not so far for Indian startups.
How Do Space Programs Benefit Us?
Godrej Aerospace, which has worked with India’s space agency for around three decades in recent years, also began making engine parts for Boeing Co, the Airbus unit of EADS and Israel’s state-owned Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd. This shows how Indian companies can make it big in the global arena because of the success they achieve in Indian space programs.
Chairman and MD of Antrix Corporation, the Indian space agency’s commercial arm, S. Rakesh said that there is a lot of money to make in the space business for Indian corporations. Well, he is not wrong as the global space business is a $330 billion business and it is growing 2–3% annually.
But Are They really necessary?
If you’re still not convinced about the role played by space programs in helping humankind, a few lines from the letter written by Ernst Stuhlinger, one of NASA’s top rocket scientists, will change your mind. He wrote this letter when a nun asked how NASA could justify spending billions on the Apollo program when children were starving to death.
“The voyage to Mars will certainly not be a direct source of food for the hungry. However, it will lead to so many new technologies and capabilities that the spin-offs from this project alone will be worth many times the cost of its implementation. Besides the need for new technologies, there is a continuing great need for new basic knowledge in the sciences if we wish to improve the conditions of human life on earth.”
In conclusion, we need space programs for our companies to grow and our economy to flourish. We need space programs to venture deep into science and to build new things and cross bigger milestones in the science field.
We need space programs because there are places which are unexplored in the galaxy and wouldn’t you want your country’s flag on their surfaces as well?
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