So the last few days have been big for the Indian scientific establishment. Remember the Agni III that the Government was so reluctant to allow the DRDO to test because it didn't want to jeopardize our seemingly good relations with our neighbors? Well, something changed in this time period and Agni III was finally tested, but unfortunately, the first test was unsuccessful.
Then a few days later ISRO launched India's heaviest yet satellite, the INSAT 4C, from its GSLV family of rockets at the Satish Dhawan Space Center at Sriharikota, and unfortunately, the rocket erupted into a ball of flames shortly after take off. This was ISRO's first unsuccessful launch in more than a decade. ISRO has had 12 successful launches before this failure, although some newspapers have put the number at 11 successful launches. The point is that everyone took successful launches by ISRO for granted, and now that we have had an unsuccessful launch, everyone's baying for ISRO's blood.
Its funny to see the number of ignorant people on the internet, and its tragi-comic to see that most of that group who are asking for limits on ISRO's future funding and research are Indian. If they only knew better.
Being a culture that is steeped in heirarchies and the importance of one's society around it, I think we suffer from a strong case of the "Log Kya Kahenge" Syndrome. In Hindi, it means, 'what will people say?' I think Indian entrepreneurship was never really able to take off for most of last century for precisely this reason, that many people were afraid of failures, and that the society came down hard on people who tried new things. Globalization and an open economy changed many of those mindsets, and it is encouraging to see enterprising young men and women springing up in every city and town. How that relates to this discussion is because of the apparent anguish that many Indians have about what the rest of the world will say with two unsuccessful attempts.
Another ignorant view that many have is that somehow cutting funds from India's defence and space research will mean more funds for India's education and healthcare sectors. Ahh pure bull. Today, the USA is where it is, i.e at the top of the world, because they are not shy to experiment. The sign of a great country is the one that learns from its mistakes, and it would really serve our interests well if our national media and bleeding hearts, or social activists, wouldn't be so fucking critical all the time. India's high quality science research should, in fact, be made autonomous, an ever continuing process that is immune from a dirty neta's shenanigans, so this country can focus on its education and healthcare.
what went wrong with the GSLV launch? Let me post one of the better scientific journalists of India's report:
GSLV crashes into Bay of Bengal
SRIHARIKOTA (Andhra Pradesh): The launch of the geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle, GSLV-F02, ended in failure when it crashed into the Bay of Bengal about 60 seconds after take-off at 5.38 p.m. on Monday.
The Range Safety Officer at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here pressed the "destruct" button to prevent debris from falling on land and injuring people. The vehicle was destroyed after its trajectory went beyond the normal limits.
The GSLV-F02, 49 metres high and weighing 414 tonnes, was to have put in orbit communication satellite INSAT-4C.
G. Madhavan Nair, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation, told reporters that the failure was "one of the rarest phenomena." The problem developed during the first stage. Pressure in one of the four strap-on motors dropped to zero; "that means, it [the motor] was not developing thrust." Though the other three strap-on motors performed well, control of the vehicle became an issue.
The ISRO chief repeatedly stressed that the failure was not due to any design flaw. "This event took place after lift-off."
The lift-off, first set to take place at 4.38 p.m., was delayed by an hour as a safety valve in one of the pumps did not reseal when the third stage of the vehicle was being filled with cryogenic propellants. A team was sent to repair it.
After 40 seconds of lift-off, there was a divergence of 10 degrees of angular error in the trajectory of the vehicle. Four degrees of angular error is the normal limit.
Mr. Nair said the ISRO would go through the data available from the flight. "We will pinpoint the failure. We will take corrective action. Within a year, we will have the GSLV up again."
He denied that the mission failed because the vehicle was carrying the heaviest satellite ever by an ISRO vehicle so far. The weight of satellites had been gradually stepped up, but the three previous flights were successful.
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And what went wrong with the AGNI III? Lets find out...
DRDO will go ahead with more tests despite failure of Agni-III
"An exhausitve analysis of the missile test launch telemitry data is being conducted by scientists to point out whether the flaw was in design, manufacture or assembly of the country's 3,500 kms range missile", highly placed DRDO sources said here.
"It is apparent that the separation of the first and second stage did not occur which led to the missile going haywire from target and plunging into the sea, far short of its intended target", they said.
"The telemitry data report on the causes of failure would be tabulated and submitted to Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee within two days and later action taken on it", DRDO sources said.
"But, we mean to go ahead with more tests after analysing the data. DRDO sources said pointing out "It was our first experiment with such a long range missile and in the next few days, we will analyse faults in order to rectify them." They said the entire data of the testing of the missile from its launch to a snag developing in the second stage was being analysed and "we are confident of pinpointing it".
Prior to the launch of the missile, DRDO scientists had carried out cold-bed trials of critical components and sub-systems of missile and this would enable pinpointing of the snag.
"We have some more new technologies in Agni III. We have been testing them one by one during May and June", the sources said.
He said that DRDO was no stranger to solid fuel technology as many of the earlier Agni range missiles were totally solid fuel. "I am sure that telemitry analysis of the test launch would give clues to the organisation to rectify the faults".
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In the time when most of the media and its pseudo-intellectuals are busy writing the obituaries for ISRO, Govindraj Ethiraj speaks of reason and that nobody is immune from failure. I only wish the media would stop making such a big deal out of it. There is only one thing to these episodes; find out what went wrong, rectify 'em, and test again. Repeat the cycle and induct them when you are sure they are working fine.
And maybe ISRO and DRDO should be selective in the information they provide to the media, because the media doesnt know what to do with it. I think missile tests and space launches the world over are secret stuff, and the media is allowed in only selectively. We have been too generous.
6 lessons that ISRO can teach
ISRO is symptomatic of most government-owned and -driven projects -- progress in fits and starts, starved budgets, talent shortages and even spectacular flameouts. Not to mention international sanctions.
Yet, its ability to pull through all of this is noteworthy. As I write, the much-awaited Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) launch on Monday evening at Sriharikota has been a failure. This is a setback and a costly one at that. And yet, chances are, ISRO can be trusted to pull back. For the following reasons:
Learning from failure: ISRO has plodded on, only occasionally in the public eye, though, since it was set up in 1969. It turns out that every story of failure is a story of success. Scientists driving the projects, as one former ISRO employee recalled, were never hounded with departmental enquiries if projects failed. Nor are they today.
One of President A P J Abdul Kalam's oft-narrated tales is the one about when then chairman Satish Dhawan had put him in charge of the first satellite launch vehicle project (SLV) 3 in 1973. The SLV-3, with the Rohini satellite, was launched in 1979, but crashed into the Bay of Bengal five minutes later.
At the press conference that followed, Kalam discovered, to his shock, that Dhawan took all the blame for the disaster, despite the SLV 3 being Kalam's baby. A year later, the SLV-3 was launched successfully. And it was time to face the nation once again. Kalam was stunned again -- because this time Dhawan gave him all the credit. Kalam today says this is one piece of education 'which won't come from any university.'
Motivation and peer review: ISRO has a system of peer review and engagement that many private sector companies would find difficult to emulate. Credit for this is attributed mostly to Dhawan. Indeed, while Vikram Sarabhai is the founder of ISRO and the man who injected idealism and fervour into the organisation, Dhawan is remembered, among other things, for bringing in professionalism and processes, and an environment of openness, unheard of at that time.
Self-confidence: Whether it was Kasturirangan or now the current Chairman G Madhavan Nair, ask them where they want to be and the answer is 'on top of the world', and not 'we are trying to catch up, we will work hard.' The body language is of infectious confidence, not the usual bureaucratic arrogance one usually associates with government officials in power.
Take the China threat: While the manufacturing industry is apprehensive, ISRO maintains that India is far ahead in the space race. Despite China launching an astronaut into space, the view in Sriharikota is that India could match it if it desired. 'Our launch capabilities are as good as theirs,' Nair is on record saying.
Budgets and resources: This is a perennial problem with most Indian government organisations. ISRO has turned adversity into an advantage. Years of scavenging have made it the lowest-cost satellite launcher in the world, 35 per cent lower, on average. The Moon Mission (Chandrayaan I) is pegged in the region of Rs 350 crore (Rs 3.50 billion), the average two-year, cost over-run for most government infrastructure projects.
Mission focus: Perhaps, it's the nature of the business. All energies, teams and minds are focused on a single deadline.
Karnik says it's this discrepancy that bothers him most. Why can't we complete an expressway in time, or an airport, when we are executing with such efficiency and focus elsewhere? If ISRO can deliver, why can't the rest, he asks.
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Setbacks, yes, but a failure for Indian science? Only if we cannot learn from our mistakes.
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