Is it truly the landmark in Indian science it has been hailed as being or a leap into an Asian space race?

Some experts describe the successful launch of India’s moon mission Chandrayaan-1 as India’s foray into a space race between China and India. Space scientists have clearly indicated that such spectacular missions are more about technology demonstration than genuine scientific endeavour. “It reminds me of the US versus the Soviet Union space race of the cold war era,” said Paul Wiita, a professor of astrophysics at the Princeton University in the US. “There’s an immense potential for scientific benefits, but technological prowess and national prestige are stronger motivations for the Asian nations. You can’t rule out the possible military spin-offs too,” he added.

Comparisons with China have obviously come to the fore: the maiden Chinese mooncraft Chang’e-1 managed to orbit the moon exactly a year ago. Chinese ‘taikonauts’ (astronauts) even achieved their first space walk a month ago. Moreover, China plans to put humans on the moon before India can do so.

“The issue of lunar exploration is so politically charged in this country that as a scientist I have nothing much to say,” Shuang-nan Zhang, an astrophysicist at Beijing’s Tsinghua University , told KnowHow immediately after Chandrayaan-1 was launched. “Most of the Chinese — including peasants — seem to support the mission because it involves national prestige.” The Chinese space walk was perfectly timed to round off the patriotic pride prevalent after hosting the dazzling Olympic Games.

“Their space ambitions are clearly intended to project China as a superpower,” said Jayant Murty, a professor at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore. “To that extent, India’s mission to the moon is reactive — to avoid falling behind in the world’s perception.” Although Indian officials — including Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chief Madhavan Nair — insist that they are not in a race with China, both the countries have been fiercely competing with each other ever since China invaded India in 1962. China launched its first satellite Dong Fang Hong 1 in 1970, while India’s Aryabhatta was put in space in 1975.

G.S. Bisnovatyi-Kogan, a senior astronomer at the Russian Space Research Institute, Moscow, however, said that such competition between these new economic power centres is not unexpected. “It is quite normal that these big nations are spending a part of their wealth on exploring new frontiers. Such efforts have strong economic, technological and military implications,” said Bisnovatyi-Kogan.

Astrophysicist A.R. Rao at Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, however, said, “Unlike the cold war strife China-India rivalry is more like the weapon buying spree between India and Pakistan decades ago.”

But, how does such a contest benefit science in these nations? Is there any justification for pursuing manned moon missions?

Sandip Chakrabarti, the head of astrophysics, S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences in Calcutta, doesn’t think there is anything great about the technology deployed in the mooncraft. “Apart from the ability to calculate and execute mid-course correction of trajectories of the launch vehicle, things are pretty routine,” he said. According to him, the best instruments in Chandrayaan-1 are either of US or European origin. “The images captured by the instruments will be used by them and India will play a minor role,” said Chakrabarti who had a stint in Nasa in the mid 1990s.

Upendra Desai, who had been an astronomer both at Nasa and Isro, too agreed that science output of such missions is meagre. “Except for the solar experiments in the initial few years, Isro’s ventures have little to do with physics and astronomy,” he said. Desai is also sceptical about the scientific implications of India’s proposal to explore Helium-3 in the regolith (moon’s dust) to fuel its nuclear power stations. Concurred Chakrabarti, “It’s an eyewash since tonnes of regolith have to be processed to get even a microgram of Helium-3.”

The manned moon missions planned both by the Indian and Chinese space agencies will be bigger mistakes from a scientific perspective, say scientists. “We need to justify the benefits of sending astronauts to the moon,” said Shuang-Nan. Wiita too doesn’t see any scientific rationale behind the move. “Robotic missions can obtain better data than a manned mission at a fraction of the cost,” said Wiita. Concurred Desai, “Neither China nor India can afford such superfluous expenditure. These countries still have so many social and economic issues to handle.”