The cosmonaut, is disappointed with what he described as a “cooling off” of the programme after its launch in 2007. “The reverses must be addressed and the rocket should be man-rated (certified safe for humans) by Isro,” he told Deccan Chronicle.
His disappointment with the slow progress of the programme comes at a time when China is stepping up its space missions with an orbiting space lab, to be launched later this year. Weighing nearly 19,000 lbs, the unmanned Tiangong 1 module will be launched aboard a Long March 2F rocket from Jiuquan space centre in the Gobi desert.
As space buffs across the world celebrate the 50th year of Yuri Gagarin's trail-blazing flight into space, scientists and cosmonauts are set to chant the icon’s call “Poyekhali,” or “here we go” and advance from an era of voyages of discovery, to voyages of profit.
Their ambitions are soaring beyond the Moon and Mars — not merely for science, symbolism and glamour — but for the benefit of humankind. Energy from space, efficient methods of identification and management of water resources, and fail-safe security systems for every nation, will be within reach. For once, sci-fi writers could be proved right, albeit through a joint effort, circa 2030.
Unlike the space race of the Cold War-era, where Russia gained leadership through Yuri Gagarin's first flight into space on April 12, 1961, journeys to Mars and beyond will be achieved through collaboration and by complementing each other’s strengths, as every space-faring nation has realised that an individual shot will be prohibitively expensive.
In fact, the United States has already invited India for its Moon-Mars project, while France seems keen to ride piggy-back on India's orbiter to Mars.
“We are more interested in the orbiter to Mars than say a lander as part of India’s future missions to the Moon,” says Pierre Lasbordes, Chairman of the Parliamentary Space Committee of France.
Collaboration will be the buzzword when man attempts to mine the Moon for rare minerals and Helium-3 or design new rockets for outings into the dark, distant heavens, says Indian cosmonaut Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma.
“Every one has realised that we can look for new resources by exploring the Moon and Mars, so collaboration will drive all future programmes and help us explore the universe,” says the man who is also keen to witness more Indians journey into space onboard home-made rockets.
Space scientists are keen to roll out new rockets, a task that even the private sector has ventured into (remember the prospect of a burgeoning space-tourism industry), to scale down the cost of traveling into space and usher in more benefits to the developed and developing word.
While Russia is developing a futuristic nuclear propulsion system for interplanetary flights, others could depend on air-breathing propulsion and even ion engines for probes to distant celestial bodies. In the interim, Russia’s time-tested workhorse, the Soyuz, will be the sole means for taking crews to the International Space Station (ISS) as the US will permanently ground its fleet of space shuttles later this year.
The Soyuz has proved to be the safest way to deliver people to space and it will be the only way, till the US builds a new spaceship. Under contracts with Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, Nasa will pay a total of $1.2 billion for US astronauts’ rides aboard the Soyuz craft between 2012-2015.
The years ahead could also witness the emergence of China as a major player in launching humans into space. Nearer home, Indian space scientists could join the big league of those who have launched humans into space.
The human spaceflight programme, announced in 2007, was scheduled to cross the first major milestone in the form a flight into space in 2014. It has slipped following two successive failures of Geo-Stationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).
“We started late, but caught up with the rest with our space programme. It is now for the country to decide whether to evolve as a key player in human space missions or remain a silent observer,” says Dr G. Madhavan Nair, former chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), who commenced the programme but seems disappointed at the lack of support from the Union Government.
But whether distant celestial bodies will tremble beneath human footfalls, or the scurrying pads of von Neumann probes, one thing is for sure, the heavens still capture our imagination today as they did that of a young cosmonaut 50 years ago.
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