Bright spark or ignited mind?

Not many NRIs who gathered in Hyderabad for the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas could have been prepared for President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam?s call to put the Indian flag on Mars.

Not many NRIs who gathered in Hyderabad for the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas could have been prepared for President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s call to put the Indian flag on Mars. The president reportedly thought aloud about Indians swarming the galaxy towards the end of this century, and inhabiting the fourth rock from the Sun. Far-fetched though the idea may seem now, it is not impossible to plant the tricolour on the Red Planet — strictly going by scientific thinking, and provided that India actively participates in international efforts to explore space. And this would call for more than lofting remote sensing and communications satellites into Earth’s orbit.

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Looking ahead to Mars would make it imperative for Indian space scientists to do at least a decade’s homework to develop the technology to prepare a Mars mission. The planetary dynamics on Mars — an alien world that exchanges gases with itself to spawn extreme weather and temperature systems — could prove extremely challenging for wannabe settlers though. That is, when they reach Mars — a journey very different from the three-day trip to the Moon, which is 1,500 times closer to Earth than the planet. Although astronauts have been in space for 45 years, except for a few quick trips to the moon, they’ve never spent much time far from Earth. Deep space is filled with radiation. With no big planet nearby to block or deflect that radiation, pioneers who make the 80 million-mile, three-year voyage to Mars and back will be tested to their limits.

So while dreamers have the right to dream on, people with their feet firmly on the ground must begin assembling the building blocks if we want to make Mars a home away from home.