ISRO's MOM, Modi and Science

ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) or Mangalyaan is now in its final orbit around Mars. After a voyage of more than 650 million kilometres, MOM successfully rendezvoused with the Red Planet and carried out a series of successful manoeuvres on 24th September. It is now orbiting around Mars and sending back data from its various instruments, one of which is a colour camera. We now have colour pictures of Mars as sent by MOM. As emphasised by ISRO, the primary purpose of the mission was not the scientific exploration of Mars or its atmosphere but its ability to carry out a complex inter planetary mission – navigation, firing of its engines as designed, remote control and making all the elements that go into such a complex mission work seamlessly. This it has achieved flawlessly and ISRO deserves kudos for a mission well done.

While hailing ISRO's achievement, we must not forget that unless India is successful with its GSLV launch vehicles and the cryogenic liquid fuel engines, it will lack the power required to launch higher payloads into space. The PSLV launch vehicle, the workhorse now of India's space program, has indeed proven highly reliable, but it does not have the punch required to launch heavier payloads into space. This was also the reason that Mangalyaan's scientific value in terms of generating data is limited – its payload was only about 15 kg, limiting the number of instruments to only five. And let us not forget that ISRO has been under international sanctions for the major part of its existence, and its capability is a testimony to self-reliance and indigenous capability in science and technology.

What did leave a bad taste in the mouth was Narendra Modi's speech from ISRO's headquarters in Bangalore. Soon after the Mars Orbiter was successfully put into orbit, Modi took over with a bombastic speech, which essentially tried to appropriate the Mars Mission to himself. He talked about his relationship with Rajkot where some part of one of the instruments was developed, did not mention any of the founders of ISRO – Homi Bhava, who initiated ISRO's formation, Vikram Sarabhai or Satish Dhawan who led it with distinction -- or any of the others. Even Radha Krishnan, the current ISRO chief, was allowed only to stand next to him and not asked to even speak a few words. No political figure except Vajpayee was mentioned – not Nehru who saw in science and technology a way out of India's poverty and under whose leadership ISRO was conceived, nor Manmohan Singh during whose office, the Mars Mission was planned and launched. All in all a vainglorious and graceless speech. As a wag commented, while the Mars Obiter's engines fired successfully for 24 minutes, Modi (mis)fired for even longer.

The other part of the Mars Mission was the jingoism in the Indian media. The Mars Mission was converted into some kind of race, in which India had won the 1st place by being successful in its first attempt. Instead of science being a collaborative endeavour, it became converted to a variant of the Asian Games going on in Incheon, Doubtless, ISRO has made a significant achievement with its Mars Mission, but it must be seen in perspective. There are already a number of live Mars probes: NASA's Curiosity and Opportunity rovers on the surface of Mars or orbiters by the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter and, as well as Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey. ISRO's MOM and NASA's Maven have now been also been successfully put into Martian orbit. It is the combination of all these probes (as well as past ones) and their data that will tell us much more about Mars. Not just “our” Mangalyaan. Yes, we should be excited about the new ground that Mangalyaan has opened up -- not in competition, but in collaboration with others.

ISRO's MOM and NASA's Maven are already sending back pictures. MOM's two pictures from its colour camera show a section of Mars with a thin sliver of atmosphere and another that shows a view of Mars cratered surface. Maven's ultraviolet spectroscopy pictures indicates the distribution of oxygen and hydrogen in Mars atmosphere – the hydrogen atoms rising to higher reaches while the heavier oxygen atoms stay closer to the surface.

MOM's colour camera show a section of Mars with a thin sliver of atmosphere as seen from an altitude of 8,449 kilometres

A view of Mars' cratered surface from a height of 7,300 kilometres.

Maven's Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph shows three views of Mars in ultraviolet wavelengths, the 4th image being a combination of the other three. The bright area at lower right is light reflected either by polar ice or clouds.

Will MOM solve the riddle of life on Mars? For all those who listened to TV anchors breathlessly talking about MOM finding intelligent life on Mars, they are in for a disappointment. There is almost zero chance of finding intelligent life on Mars. What we are looking for is the possibility of very hardy lifeforms, which may have survived once Mars lost most of its atmosphere including water. That is why the methane measuring instrument that MOM is carrying is important. Discovery of methane will open up the possibility that bacteria may exist on Mars – methane is regarded as a possible marker for such bacterial activity. Though the possibility of methane being a geological phenomena could still exist, if MOM finds methane in the upper atmosphere of Mars, it will certainly be an important finding.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author's personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Newsclick