India’s unmanned Mars mission announcement causes backlash

by | Aug 20, 2012 | exploration, Seradata News | 1 comment

While India’s space programme has previously been praised for its activities that genuinely help its people i.e. remote sensing satellite applications for agriculture, satellite telecommunications applications for rural education etc. aid-giving nations are becoming increasingly irritated that India is now straying into more glamorous space activities.

Western criticism that its aid is indirectly funding India’s space programme has now found its way onto the front pages.  Courtesy: Express Newspapers.

Concerns were initially expressed after India annoumced plans for manned space programme – an activity with little benefit to poorer people in India’s population – and a project that most Western nations would consider too expensive for themselves to undertake.  Further Western media and political criticism followed Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh’s announcement during a speach to mark the 65th anniversary of India’s independence that the nation now plans to send an unmanned mission to Mars    Even within India, there has been suggestions that the funding for the mission would be better spent on key infrastructure projects. This follows serious power cuts to major parts of northern India.

In the United Kingdom, political and media critics have pointed out that the £280 million of the UK’s annual economic aid to India was indirectly funding India’s exploratory space programme – funding that the UK’s own space programme desperately needs,  Others have noted that India’s economic growth is now significantly faster than the UK’s and that soon India’s total wealth will surpass it.

About Seradata

Seradata produce the renowned Seradata database. Trusted by over 100 of the world’s leading Space organisations, Seradata is a fully queryable database used for market analysis, failure/risk assessment, spectrum analysis and space situational awareness (SSA).

For more information go to https://www.seradata.com/product/

Related Articles

Categories

Archives

Tags

nasaspacexecoreviewsissesaArianespacevideochinaFalcon 9v1.2FT Block 525virgin galacticULAfalcon 9RoscosmosevaDGAspacewalkaviation weekaressoyuzIGTInternational Space StationRocket LabBeidouawardsBlue OriginStarlinkspaceSatellite broadcastingrussiamoonboeingAirbus DSISROCargo Return VehicleresearchOneWebmarsblogspaceshiptwojaxaorionmarsimpactdelayhyperbolaEutelsatdemocratrocketlunarhypertextobamagoogle lunar prizelaunchVegabarack obamaconstellationSEStourismnorthfiguresthales alenia spacespaceflightnode 2fundedIntelsatRaymond Lygo2009Lockheed MartinExpress MD-2Elon MuskAtlas Vromess2dassault aviationaviationLucy2008wk2sstlukradiomissilesuborbitaldocking portexplorationAriane 5 ECAVirgin OrbittestinternetLong March 2D/2sts-122Ariane 5Northrop GrummanSLSChina Manned Space EngineeringElectronflightspace tourism2010cotsnewspapermissile defensegalileospaceportExpress AMU 1Long March 4Cbuildspace stationaltairsoyuz 2-1aProton Minternational astronautical congressshuttlespace shuttleEuropean Space AgencyLauncherOneCosmosIntelsat 23scaled compositesnew yorkrulesAriane 6hanleybudgetatvVietnamshenzhoucongressMojaveboldenLong March 2COrbital ATKInmarsatcnesnew shepardiaclunar landerGuiana Space CenterkscApollolawsSpace Systems/LoralUK Space AgencyLong March 4BKuaizhou 1AILSprotonUS Air ForceTalulah RileydarpaElectron KSFalcon 9v1.2 Block 5Vega CeuAstriumSkylonpicturebaseusaastronautdragonlanderfiveeventTelesatNorth KoreaSSLAprilSNC50thinterviewLong MarchSea LaunchfalconWednesdaycustomerlinkatlantissuccessor