India joins elite club on the Moon. What are our plans?

On 23 August 2023, India made history by becoming the first country to land in the lunar south pole region, and thus also turning out to be only the fourth country after the US, the former Soviet Union and China to achieve a soft landing on the Moon. 

Accomplished with a budget of about 615 crore Indian rupees ($74.58 million), this was India's second attempt to touch down on the Moon. A previous mission in 2019, Chandrayaan-2, successfully deployed an orbiter but its lander crashed.

What makes India's achievement with Chandrayaan-3 even more significant is that it came just days after Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft spun out of control and crashed into the Moon, highlighting how difficult it is to land in the south pole of the region, which is full of craters and deep trenches. Both the United States and China have planned missions to the south pole.

While there was a time - since the late 1950's - when space exploration was dominated only by the US and the former Soviet Union, and was much later joined by China, the latest successful landing marks India's emergence as a space power.

The country is now also in discussions with Japan to work on a Moon mission together, according to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman S Somanath. 

As of late 2021, there were around 4,852 operational satellites in orbit—2,944 belonging to the United States. And according to Our World in Data of the University of Oxford, the USA, Russia and China have sent a total of  339, 121 and 18 humans into space respectively. 

The data also shows that the USA has launched the most objects into space - 5,534, Russia has launched 3,611 and China has launched 731 objects.

So far, around 86 countries have attempted to enter space and as of 2022, only 11 countries have the ability to send objects into space using their own launch vehicles.

Countries like Japan, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates also aim to send missions to the Moon this year, which has given rise to speculation whether all this is an indication of the democratisation of space. 

According to Ariel Ekblaw, the founder and Director of the MIT Space Exploration Initiative, "The near future of near space, from low Earth orbit to the Moon, will touch the lives of countless Earth citizens, via GPS satellites that power the apps in our pockets and space tourism that will give an entirely new audience the chance to experience the overview effect. We want these citizens to play a part in creating and shaping the technologies of space, whether or not they travel there themselves."

She further said, "Democratisation is ultimately about building and contributing to healthy, self-sustaining ecosystems. Our modern incarnation of Starfleet Academy (In the fictional universe of Star Trek, Starfleet Academy is where recruits to Starfleet's officer corps are trained) will be a collective effort. Establishing long-term communities and broad engagement to realise a shared future requires rich collaboration and the sharing of technologies and ideas across institutions." 

Lately with its Artemis missions, NASA is aiming to lay the foundations for the first human settlements beyond Earth and pave the way for extraplanetary colonisation, through opening the space for private sectors. The agency is tagging private companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Nokia, Lockheed Martin, and General Motors to develop solutions for its lunar missions such as space-worthy rides, Moon streaming, lunar GPS, and more. This new market — worth over $100 billion— could be game-changing for humanity.

Also, according to NASA, the Moon holds hundreds of billions of dollars of untapped resources. It is aiming to mine those resources on the Moon in the next decade, with the goal of excavating the soil there by 2032. It will first be looking at ways to develop oxygen and water supplies on the arid lunar surface, which does not have breathable air in its thin atmosphere, later expanding to exploit other minerals such as iron.

The US approved the world's first space mining law in 2015 and Luxembourg got one in 2016. The law opened a floodgate of investment to Luxembourg, a tax haven of many global corporations and mega-rich individuals. Its space industry accounts for some 1.8% of its GDP, which is the highest in the EU. 

For all the countries in the space race, it is not just about direct resources and might. Agriculture, fisheries, infrastructure, urban development (including land register or urban mobility), transportation, maritime activities, communication, tourism, banking, defence and security and many other sectors, here on Earth, can also benefit from advancements in space.  

Where art thou, Bangladesh?

As Bangladeshis, this raises a question in our mind: will Bangladesh be able to join the space race and conquer the Moon anytime soon? The answer, however, is a big No, as reflected by the dire situation of Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organisation (SPARRSO), the country's only space research institution. 

The institution does not have any space launch station, orbit, own satellites and related technology-related laboratories either. The only notable infrastructure for space research it has is a ground station, and that too funded by foreign grants.  

According to Md. Nur Hossain Sharifee, one of the chief scientific officers, SPARRSO receives data from the foreign satellites through its ground station. It cannot receive all kinds of data – some, it has to purchase from them, and some others are open-source data available on the internet. 

"We monitor natural resources, climate change, the environment, forests and agriculture etc. We maintain the ground station, which is an insignificant part of what any other space research organisations do," he explained. 

If we compare SPARRSO with ISRO, the sorry situation will be more apparent. 

ISRO began launching its lunar mission by sending off the Chandrayaan-1 orbiter to the Moon in 2008, and Chandrayan-2 a decade later. It also flew the Mars Orbiter Mission, nicknamed Mangalyaan or "Mars craft" to the Red Planet. The vehicle successfully reached Mars in 2014, making India's space agency just the fourth entity to place a spacecraft in Martian orbit.

ISRO has already developed three types of launch vehicles (or rockets) namely, the PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle), the GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mark III or LVM).

Unfortunately, Bangladesh's only success in terms of embarking on the realm of space exploration came through the launch of its inaugural satellite, Bangabandhu-1, on 12 May 2018. But SPARRSO had no association with the satellite launching, as it didn't have any satellite technology programme of its own, raising further questions about its authenticity as a proper space research institution. 

The kind of manpower and investment needed to run a research institution like SPARSO is also in short supply. 

Another scientific officer of the organisation, seeking anonymity, revealed that against 63 posts for scientific officers and engineers, there are currently around 20-25 only, out of whom 9-10 scientists are new, with less than one year of experience.

"This means we have at best 15 scientific officers who have noteworthy experience," he said. But an organisation like ISRO reportedly has eight to ten thousand employees. 

"I had the opportunity to work with ISRO at the section where the transformer and camera of satellites are designed; it was in Ahmedabad. It is one of the 15 organisations of ISRO and this one section is 20-30 times bigger than the entirety of SPARRSO," said the scientific officer. 

There is also a stark contrast in terms of the leadership between ISRO and SPARRSO. 

ISRO's current Chairman, S Somanath is an aerospace engineer and rocket scientist. He joined ISRO in 1985 and has since then served in many positions at Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) and Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) including Project Manager-Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), Deputy Director for Structures Entity/Propulsion & Space Ordnance Entity, and Project Director, Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV Mk-III). In short, clearly he has the experience and expertise to head an organisation like ISRO. 

On the flip side of the coin, the current chairman of SPARRSO, Md Abdus Samad, holds a Bachelor's degree in Agriculture from Bangladesh Agricultural University and a Master's degree in Development studies from Peking University in China. 

He is a fifteenth (15th) batch officer of BCS (Administration) cadre. Before joining Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organization (SPARSO), he was working as Director of Bangladesh Tourism Corporation. 

From the beginning of his career, Samad worked as Assistant Commissioner and Magistrate, Upazila Executive Officer, District Administrator in various districts and upazilas. Besides, he sat in various important positions in the Ministry of Public Administration and National River Protection Commission.

Remarkably, in spite of being responsible to head a space research institution, he has no formal education in aerospace. BCS cadres are usually appointed as SPARRSO chairman. As a result, even officials from the background of social sciences and business administrations previously held the position as well. 

Since beginning its journey in 1980, SPARRSO has so far seen 26 chairmans in 43 years, meaning there is a change in leadership every one and a half years, leaving no room for the chiefs to settle down, set long-term goals and achieve them. 

But ISRO, which was formed in 1969 from its preceding agency Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR), has had only 10 chairmans so far, with every chairman getting more than a five-year tenure on average. 

SPARRSO, though it  has the word 'research' in its name, has an impoverished record in research work as well. 

It has 16 divisions in total, namely: Agriculture, Forestry, Water Resources, Fisheries, Geology, Oceanography, Photography, Cartography, Ground Truth, Atmospheric Research, Ocean Physics, Agro and Hydrometeorology, Instrumentation and Data Processing, Groundstation Resource, Space Physics and Rocket Dynamics and Rocket Technology.

The institution is supposed to conduct research on these divisions in regards to space and remote sensing. But from 2008-09 to 2020-21 FY, it has published only 117 research reports, meaning there's about 11 research reports every year, with every division not even having one on average every year. 

The organisation's most recent annual report (July 2021-June 2022) listed only six published research reports under the 'Publications' chapter. Also, according to the Annual Research Program of SPARRSO, 16 research projects were approved for implementation in the financial year of 2021-2022.

Meanwhile, in March this year, SPARRSO published an advertisement on national dailies offering research fellowship in two categories. According to the advertisement, the fellowship would be granted on priority basis, with Space Science, Technology and Policy coming last, following Disaster Science and Management, Blue Economy, Water Resources, Food Security, Environmental Studies and Forestry. 

There is also a vast difference between the launching and other facilities between SPARRSO and ISRO. 

The Regional Remote Sensing Center (RRSC) of SPARRSO was established on the campus of Atomic Energy Research Institute at Savar in 1985. It was built there with financial aid from the French government. But even before starting its operation in full swing, the flow of foreign funds dried out, and it could never meet its potential. Apart from this, there hasn't been any initiative from SPARRSO whatsoever to expand its operations with new facilities. 

But with ISRO, it's a different story altogether. Apart from its headquarters and marketing and commercial wings in Bengaluru, it also has Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, National Atmospheric Research Laboratory in Gadanki, Andhra Pradesh, North-Eastern Space Applications Centre in Umiam and Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology – Asia's first university dedicated to study and research of Outer Space – in Thiruvananthapuram.

"The launching facility of ISRO is designed and established on an island near Tamil Nadu as big as Bangladesh's Sandwip or Kutubdia. This means they have used a huge land that could accommodate a city just for the launching facility," said the scientific officer. 

"If you consider all these facilities, Bangladesh doesn't have any such plans for space expeditions in the future," he added.