Information Resources for Essay on Role of Space Science & Technology for Nation Building

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Note - Below writeup may not be winning writing. You can write much better essays than below sample. These are just guidelines for your preparation. You can read more information and include in your essay on the day of competition.

India’s space program has contributed to the country’s economic growth, supported beneficial societal applications, and helped to build broader scientific and technical capacities and infrastructure. 

“Nation Building” is a complex socio-economic process with many facets; however, economic growth is arguably the driving issue behind national development policies. It has been written that economic development is characterized through three generalized national goals: (1) Produce more; in particular life-sustaining products are emphasized, however any increase in productivity will be correlated with economic growth, (2) Increase standards of living; higher living standards are enabled by skilled jobs, increased education, reduced costs, easier access to goods and services, and healthier lives, and (3) Expand markets and economies; specifically to increase the range of economic and social choices for individuals.

In 1960, two countries could be considered space faring nations; by 2007, 46 had achieved some level of space capability. Countries are increasingly pursuing active space programs and, in the past 20 years, the number of countries with significant development challenges engaging in space activities has risen dramatically. It is unlikely this trend will be reverse; new space-faring countries will primarily come from the developing world. These developing nations are increasingly considering national space programs as a valuable investment along the road to development. Space assets and activities both require and provide vital infrastructure to a knowledge driven economy.  Launch vehicles, satellites, and other high technologies common in space programs require advanced manufacturing and educational infrastructures in electronics, cryogenics, computer science, optics, and other innovation driven fields. Moreover, satellites provide information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure over large geographical areas, reducing the cost of investment, compared to terrestrial infrastructure, that provides the connectivity necessary for a knowledge economy. A space program can provide direct benefits to the individual citizens of a nation. The pursuit of these benefits is expressed in three rationales—advancement of scientific and technical skills or capacity, inducement of economic growth, and improvement of standards of living. In the Indian case, policymakers explicitly intended the space program “to play a significant role in a broader national policy of planned socioeconomic development.” These policy makers believed that through the development of science and technology, embodied in the space program and other national projects, India could “leap frog over the traditional stages of development.”  In addition to the goals of development and increasing societal benefit, some of the drivers that started the space age continue to influence national space programs. In particular these drivers include international prestige and national security, and are associated with national power. While development represents an important rationale for initiating a national space program these traditional drivers should not be discounted.

The Indian government created a dedicated institutional framework for its national space program. This framework includes: the Department of Space (DOS), the administrative agency responsible for the Indian space program; the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the primary operational entity responsible for Indian space activities; and the Antrix Corporation, a government-owned organization responsible for marketing India’s space products and services. From the inception of its space program in 1962, India has favored an evolutionary technology development process. India’s indigenous space launch capacity provides an excellent example of this strategy. The first generation of space launch vehicles began with the Satellite Launch Vehicle in 1979. Technologies from this and other early launch vehicles, along with judicious use of technology transfer, support the present generation of launchers, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). The GSLV in particular is an interesting example of India’s incremental development efforts. The first stage, a 130-ton solid booster, is proven PSLV technology; however, the fourth stage is a Russian supplied cryogenic engine. ISRO is relying on the Russian engine to gain experience with cryogenic technology as they develop an indigenous fourth stage. India also possesses an indigenous capacity to build and operate world-class satellites, with a particular focus on communications and Earth observation platforms. The INSAT series of satellites provides an advanced telecommunications capability in combination with a meteorological capability. The Indian Remote Sensing Satellite System (IRS) provides resolution and sensing capabilities that are comparable to systems operated by the most technically advanced space actors, including government and private entities. India’s satellite capabilities have enabled a number of successful applications focused on providing societal services. The INSAT series has been used to provide rural connectivity, resulting in the expansion of access to public television from 26% of the population in 1983 to 90% in 2005. Tele-education and tele-medicine applications have also been developed using India’s satellite communication capabilities.  For example, in the pilot phase of the HealthSat program, using existing INSAT capabilities, 152 remote and rural clinics were connected to 34 specialty hospitals in major population centers.16 India is scheduled to launch a dedicated communications satellite in early 2008, to provide communications links between urban specialty health centers and rural clinics. A similar program for the education sector, the EDUSAT program, has connected 10,200 terminals across India to facilitate instruction. The IRS satellites are used for natural disaster monitoring purposes and to provide data to decision makers for agricultural and natural resource monitoring and management. For example, the Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Technology Mission used IRS-derived data to map potential groundwater sources, a capability that is especially useful when applied in rural communities. Using this data, 200,000 groundwater wells were drilled in 160,000 villages in rural India, with a success rate of 92%. This is compared to a 42% success rate using conventional siting methods. Remote sensing applications such as this, help India manage its factors of production while supporting the populace.

Space model from Indian experience  can be  2×2 matrix - intrinsic/extrinsic coupled with reason/method - the result is an interesting . This is shown as shown below.The boxes provide the basis for a simple decisional tree for comparing successful elements of successful Indian Space Model.

The experience of India, over the past 40 plus years, in developing and operating a space program focused on providing direct societal benefits offers a number of lessons as developing countries across the globe become increasingly involved in space activities. 

 Thus, it can be seen that how India’s space program helped in a national development and societal benefits and even this model can be adopted by other developing countries. However, India’s space program continues to evolve and the ISRO described in this paper, a society-centric institution focused on the application of space assets to development challenges, my not be the ISRO of the future. Specifically, the Government of India and ISRO have begun to pursue a new dimension for India’s space program. As evidenced by the planned Chandrayaan-1 and 2 lunar mission and other space exploration activities, India is beginning to look outward in the continued evolution of the space program. The establishment of a sustainable private industry would represent the successful continuation of the Indian experience in employing space activities for national development. It remains to be seen how the objectives of future exploration endeavors and societal applications will develop and their interaction should be investigated further. 

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