India S Space Odyssey

Trace India’s journey through its space program, from its early skywatchers, the myths and legends, and the dreamers in a newly independent country, to the visionaries who continue to inspire generations to look towards the stars. In 1947, a newly independent India struggled to manage its new borders, limited resources, and a burgeoning population. Almost instinctively, its leaders turned towards the skies, looking up and beyond to see how they could use technology and space to help their people. This wasn’t a new endeavour, however. Skywatchers in ancient India had always looked towards the stars, mapping them, giving them names, and building myths. So, new India turned towards the stars once again - using satellites to help with agriculture, forecast weather, and build better communication. Today, India’s space program has morphed into something larger. The country looks towards the stars—not to sustain itself, but to explore, to reach the final frontier, and to take its own place among global space players. India’s Space Odyssey is as much about India’s space program as it is about understanding space and space exploration. It aims to be a definitive encyclopedia that will combine key concepts with key events, people, and places, and place it within the global context. The book will be broadly divided into four sections. The first section will look at Ancient Skywatchers, from Brahmagupta to Bhaskara and Aryabhatta in 6th century BCE, the myths around space, and the Vedanga Jyotisha, one of the earliest known Indian text on astronomy. The second section will look at astronomy from the 16th century, the royal patronage astronomers received as well as the observatories that were built during the time. The third section will look at a newly independent India and its efforts to build a space programme with the help of the US and Russia. The final section will look at India’s achievements in the 21st century and its missions.

This book discusses the journey of Dr. K Kasturirangan, who shares his experience during his long tenure at ISRO including the Chairmanship of ISRO, subsequently membership of the Rajya Sabha, the Planning Commission and many other responsibilities. Over the past five decades of public and professional service to the nation, Dr. Kasturirangan has graduated from a young researcher in astrophysics working under Vikram Sarabhai to leading India’s space program (ISRO), being entrusted by five successive Prime Ministers, besides dealing with several other domains of responsibilities beyond space, all of which have significantly impacted India’s development. This book centers around select 12 public invited lectures, Dr. Kasturirangan delivered ranging from developing hi-tech space systems, to managing an organization as intricate as ISRO which was guided by the wisdom of mentors, including Vikram Sarabhai, M G K Menon, Satish Dhawan and U. R. Rao, to tackling multi-faceted socio-economic issues, including India’s nuclear deal, report headed by him on the Western Ghats ecosystem, and the new National Education Policy 2020. Scientists, historians, policy makers, management strategists, journalists, or anyone with a keen interest in understanding the processes behind such large-scale science, technology and socio-economic endeavors – right from planning, creating appropriate institutional mechanisms, working with multiple stakeholders to ensure that these programs deliver tangible benefits to society, articulating these benefits with clarity to political leaders to assure public support – will find this book deeply instructive and illuminating. It will be of interest to the scientific, education and management community as well as to policy makers and researchers affiliated with multifaceted developmental issues.

Fifty years in the making, India's Space Programme is fulfilling the vision of its founders and delivering services from space that touch the lives of 1.3 billion people every day. In addition to operating a collection of satellites for weather, Earth observation, navigation and communication today, India has a spacecraft orbiting Mars and a space telescope in Earth orbit. This book provides the big picture of India's long association with science, from historical figures like Aryabhata and Bhaskara to Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai, the key architects of its space program. It covers the scientific contribution of Indian scientists during the European Enlightenment and industrial revolution. It traces the technological development of Tipu Sultan's use of rockets for war in the 1780s; the all-but-forgotten contribution of Stephen H Smith's use of rockets as a means of transport in 1935 in northern India; and the emergence of Sriharikota – India's spaceport, the heart of India's modern Space Programme. • A detailed account of how a fishing village in Kerala was transformed into a space centre and used to launch India's first rocket into space on 21 November 1963. • A detailed summary of India's space infrastructure – launch vehicles, deep space network, Telemetry, Tracking and Command and space assets in orbit. • Description of how the ordinary people of India benefit from the services delivered by the space programme • Why India chose to go to the Moon and Mars and how it got there. • The prospects for India's ambitions in space for human spaceflight, national security and scientific exploration • An analysis of how India's Space Programme may play out on the global stage. Will it compete or collaborate with China, USA and Russia in space? This detailed work, in 645 pages, 29 tables and 9 appendices, is richly illustrated with 140+ illustrations (some images published for the first time) and supported by over 1,000 references. It is written for the non-specialist, offering a big-picture view.

The definitive story of the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey, acclaimed today as one of the greatest films ever made, and of director Stanley Kubrick and writer Arthur C. Clarke—“a tremendous explication of a tremendous film….Breathtaking” (The Washington Post). Fifty years ago a strikingly original film had its premiere. Still acclaimed as one of the most remarkable and important motion pictures ever made, 2001: A Space Odyssey depicted the first contacts between humanity and extraterrestrial intelligence. The movie was the product of a singular collaboration between Stanley Kubrick and science fiction visionary Arthur C. Clarke. Fresh off the success of his cold war satire Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick wanted to make the first truly first-rate science fiction film. Drawing from Clarke’s ideas and with one of the author’s short stories as the initial inspiration, their bold vision benefited from pioneering special effects that still look extraordinary today, even in an age of computer-generated images. In Space Odyssey, author, artist, and award-winning filmmaker Michael Benson “delivers expert inside stuff” (San Francisco Chronicle) from his extensive research of Kubrick’s and Clarke’s archives. He has had the cooperation of Kubrick’s widow, Christiane, and interviewed most of the key people still alive who worked on the film. Drawing also from other previously unpublished interviews, Space Odyssey provides a 360-degree view of the film from its genesis to its legacy, including many previously untold stories. And it features dozens of photos from the making of the film, most never previously published. “At last! The dense, intense, detailed, and authoritative saga of the making of the greatest motion picture I’ve ever seen…Michael Benson has done the Cosmos a great service” (Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks).

This book gives insights by providing a glimpse into the past, while it connects with the present and delivers perspectives on the future dimensions of India’s space programme. The chapters cover a broad range– Commercial & NewSpace, Space Policy, Space Security, International Cooperation, and Space Sustainability & Global Governance—and they deliver educated suggestions and opinions to policymakers of the country to review their strategies on these issues. Understanding expert opinions in these areas shall bestow the emerging managers of the space programme with holistic insights. This work is a unique collection of thoughts and analyses on matters relevant to space policy and governance, a good account of accomplishments, and thought-provoking puzzles on future possibilities. The authors are national and international experts in different disciplines, both veteran and young scholars, and thus will be an invaluable resource for policymakers, academic researchers, and the public at large. This work can also be a concrete step for continuing discourse on varied subjects or issues of importance, which demand an interactive and evolutionary approach to progress on policy. While there could be some differences in the positions taken by writers with reference to the views of some stakeholders in policymaking, the academic yet non-formal nature of the content in this book will hopefully create enough spaces for reflecting on a cohesive and harmonious framework of policy and its continued dynamism in a field where India can make significant contributions to national and global developments.

Contributed articles.

Human endeavours in space over the past six decades have reached a stage that just about every facet of human life today has some complement of space capability contributing to it, encompassing the entire spectrum from telecommunications, navigation, weather forecasting, remote sensing, broadcasting and disaster management. Space exploration actually owes its origins to matters military, with civil applications coming about as a by-product. Capability building in space thereafter has witnessed frenzied progress, in the spheres of both the military and the civil/commercial. With an ever increasing number of countries joining the space bandwagon, space is getting congested and competitive. International legislation on space, though well meaning, is largely viewed to be inadequate to address the concerns of equitable access to space and more alarmingly, is reticent on the issue of militarisation and weaponisation. The Indian presence in the global space order is rather significant. Ranking sixth globally in terms of space budget and technological ca pability, India is capable of going beyond its calling. Its multi-dimensional space programme spans almost the entire spectrum from space launch to satellite construction and their employment in a large array of development-centric applications, and in recent years, in missions beyond the Earth. The Mangalyaan mission to Mars currently underway symbolises India’s indigenous technological prowess and is a harbinger of its capability of cementing its status as a responsible space player at the global level. India, thus, stands today, technologically robust and self-reliant – well poised in the global space order to look beyond its domestic charter and address the concerns of the international global community. Space legislation, situational awareness and international cooperation in space security are some of the geostrategic options analysed in this book, which could facilitate Indian positioning in the global space order.