Editorial 1: The new give and take
Recent Context:
- In the recent address to a joint-sitting of the US Congress, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s evocative mention of, “the dark clouds of coercion and confrontation… casting their shadow on the Indo-Pacific’ , reminded the excessive influence of China over the Indo-pacific region.
Similar events in the Historical Past:
- A similar situation prevailed in early April 1942, as imperial Japan, seeking a “greater Asia co-prosperity sphere,” overran Malaya, Singapore and Burma, and devastated the British Eastern Fleet, sinking the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes off Ceylon.
- As Japanese bombs fell on the east coast ports of Visakhapatnam and Kakinada, India steeled itself for an invasion.
- An alarmed US President, Franklin Roosevelt, fearful of losing India’s massive contribution to the Allied war effort made earnest but futile appeals to Churchill to accord dominion status to India.
- He also extended to India the “lend-lease” programme, under which it received munitions for the army and industrial materials for its ordnance factories, railways and ports. As payment, India provided $280 million worth of rations, goods, services and real estate to American and Kuomintang Chinese forces camping in Bihar.
History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes
- Eight decades later, as we see another rising Asian hegemon, China, seeking to expand its sphere of influence across the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
- Will the US and India join hands in the spirit of “lend-lease” and agree to mutual use of logistics, repair and maintenance facilities, thus re-writing a “historic rhyme”?
- As China is using the Belt and Road Initiative and the Maritime Silk Road not only to inveigle developing nations via “debt diplomacy”, but also to camouflage its actual aim, which is regional domination.
- China’s intent is manifest in its claims of sovereignty over part of the South China Sea (SCS), via the mythical “9 dash line,” its dispute with Japan over East China Sea islands, and its illegal creation/militarisation of artificial islands in the SCS.
- The most volatile and persistent threat to regional peace lies in Beijing’s ambition of “reunifying” Taiwan with mainland China, by force.
Bilateral relation of India-USA is significant to counter China hegemony:
- As far as India is concerned, the roots of Sino-Indian discord go back to China’s annexation of Tibet and the grant of asylum to the Dalai Lama in 1959. The 1962 India-China war resolved nothing and created the anomalous “line of actual control” (LAC). T
- he past few years have seen growing Chinese belligerency along the LAC, accompanied by persistent territorial claims over Arunachal Pradesh, as “Southern Tibet.”
- Given its growing asymmetry vis-à-vis China in the economic, military and technological domains, and the existence of a menacing Sino-Pakistan military axis, India finds itself in a difficult situation.
- But despite the balance of power heavily tilted in China’s favour, it is incumbent upon India, as a nuclear weapon state, a significant economic, military and demographic entity, and, above all, a democracy, to stand up to its hegemonic neighbour.
- Therefore, Foundational agreements of USA with China and transfer of advance technology will help India in counter the China
- For eg. HAL-General Electric deal for F-414 turbojet co-production, the supply of armed MQ-9B drones, cooperation in semiconductor manufacturing, or joint space-exploration will help in strengthening India’s defence power and it can be modify if required.
- The US, on its part, has viewed India as the world’s most populous nation and a huge Asian power that dominates critical Indian Ocean sea lanes.
Way forward:
- However, It should never forget that having licence-produced thousands of aircraft, aero engines, ships, tanks, diesel-engines and electronic/avionic devices, of Russian, British and French design at home, we failed to ensure that our technical fraternity acquired the skills to design, develop or innovate on their own.
- This time around, we must incorporate clear guarantees to ensure that “value addition” takes place in terms of key technological skills and knowledge being imparted to technical personnel.
- Finally, the “foundational agreements” provide for much give and take between the militaries in many spheres and India must take as much as it gives.
Editorial 2: Chandrayaan-3 to be launched : Chandrayaan-2 and why it partially failed
Recent Context:
- Almost four years after its first unsuccessful attempt to make a spacecraft land on the Moon, Isro will launch its third moon mission, Chandrayaan-3 (Ch-3), on July 12, with the primary objective of executing a precise landing on the celestial body.
- In 2019, the lander and rover of the Chandrayaan-2 mission malfunctioned in the final moments and crash-landed, getting destroyed in the process.
- The Chandrayaan-2 mission was launched on July 22, 2019,
- Vikram lunar lander crashed on the Moon during the early hours. Its debris was later found by NASA around three months later.
- Despite the setback, the mission wasn’t a complete failure as its Orbiter part kept on working normally and gathered a wealth of new information that added to our knowledge about the Moon and its environment.
What was the Chandrayaan-2 mission?
- Although the most talked about objective of the Chandrayaan-2 was to demonstrate the ability to soft-land a lander and rover on the unexplored south pole of the Moon, it also had other goals.
- The mission was “designed to expand the lunar scientific knowledge through a detailed study of topography, seismography, mineral identification and distribution, surface chemical composition, thermo-physical characteristics of topsoil and composition of the tenuous lunar atmosphere, leading to a new understanding of the origin and evolution of the Moon.
- As in 2021, the space agency revealed that the mission’s Orbiter had produced a handsome amount of data about the Moon.
- This helped in building upon existing knowledge of the celestial body in terms of its surface, sub-surface and exosphere.
- For instance, a key outcome from Chandrayaan-2 was the exploration of the permanently shadowed regions as well as craters and boulders underneath the regolith, the loose deposit comprising the top surface extending up to 3-4m in depth.
What went wrong with the Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram lander?
- The landing of Vikram was targeted for a plane about 600 km from the south pole of the Moon. However, ISRO lost contact with their lander shortly before the scheduled touchdown on September 7.
- When contact was lost, it was travelling at 50 to 60 metres per second (180 to 200 km per hour). It was decelerating, but not fast enough to slow down to a speed of 2 metres/second (7.2 km/hr) that was required for a safe landing.
- As Vikram was designed to absorb the shock of an impact even at 5 metres/second (18 km/hr). At the rate it was decelerating, it could not even have attained a speed of 5 metres/second before touchdown. It hit the Moon at a far greater speed, damaging itself and the instruments on board.
About Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
- Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. It consists of Lander and Rover configuration. It will be launched by LVM3 from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota.
- Lander payloads:
- Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA)
- Chandra’s Surface Thermo physical Experiment (ChaSTE)
- Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA)
- Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) Rover:
- Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS)
- Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) Propulsion Module:
- Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (SHAPE)
- The mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3 are:
- To demonstrate Safe and Soft Landing on Lunar Surface
- To demonstrate Rover roving on the moon and
- To conduct in-situ scientific experiments
Chandrayaan-3, a way forward to Chandrayaan-2 Mission :
- The most obvious miss was the opportunity to demonstrate the technology to make a soft landing in outer space.
- Isro scientists at the time said the accident was caused by a relatively small error that had been identified and corrected. The soon-to-be-launched Chandrayaan-3 mission will demonstrate this technology, hopefully, without any glitches.
- The lander Vikram and rover Pragyaan were carrying instruments to carry out observations on the surface. These were supposed to pick up additional information about the terrain, composition and mineralogy.
- With the support of the Orbiter, Vikram and Pragyaan would have provided two diverse sets of data that could have helped prepare a more composite picture of the Moon.