The space confrontation, which entered an active phase with the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite by the Soviet Union, continues to manifest itself. Moreover, if a couple of decades ago it was possible to speak of claims to leading roles in the near-earth space of only two countries (Russia and the United States), today other global world players are trying to join the ranks of space powers. India is one of these states.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), which is a kind of Indian analogue of the American NASA, in recent years has been trying to impress the world community, and primarily the public of countries that have been working on space exploration for some time with their programs. The ISRO organization itself was founded back in 1969, but for almost six years it did not have time to be noted for anything remarkable, until it began to closely cooperate with Soviet experts in the field of cosmonautics. The result of this cooperation was the launch in 1975 of the first Indian artificial Earth satellite "Ariabhata" from the "Kapustin Yar". Naturally, the creation of this spacecraft was not without scientific and technical assistance from Soviet design engineers.
The Indian side used the satellite to study the ionosphere, solar impulses, and also to study galactic impulses. To what extent India itself, which with all due respect could not be called a technologically and economically developed country in the 70s, was directly important to the work of "Ariabhata" is a rhetorical question, as they say. But the very fact of the first breakthrough into space was important.
In the 80s, namely in April 1984, the flight of the first Indian cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma, who took part in the Intercosmos program organized by Moscow, took place. After the flight, the first Indian cosmonaut was awarded the highest awards in India and the USSR, becoming, in particular, the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Knight of the Order of Lenin.
It was Rakesh Sharma, according to New Delhi, who became the main ideological inspirer of India's development of the manned flight program, speaking about the need for independent development at a conference in 2006. This is no less landmark event for India than the flight into space of its first astronaut pilot, and is considered the beginning of ISRO's work on ambitious new projects.
With rather limited funding by today's standards (about one billion dollars a year), the Indian Space Agency has been able to achieve tangible success in space exploration based on its own programs in recent years. Just a couple of years after the designated conference with the participation of Rakesh Sharma, India surprised the world by launching the first ever Chandrayan space probe designed to explore the moon. It is noteworthy that the lunar satellite was sent from the Indian Sriharikot cosmodrome using the Indian PSL V-XL rocket. At the same time, the Indian project became not only the first independent, but also brought India tangible profit from the fact that the probe carried on board foreign research vehicles belonging to the European and American space agencies.
It is noteworthy that Chandrayan became not only the first Indian lunar probe, but also an apparatus that almost made a real revolution in the minds of many theorists in the field of space research. This revolution consisted in the fact that the Indian probe could dispel the stereotype, which had been created by a certain circle of people for decades, that a human foot had never set foot on the lunar surface. The Americans, who seemed to have exhausted all their possibilities to prove to the skeptics that their astronauts were on the Moon, began to literally pray to Chandrayan, because the latter transmitted to Earth a number of noteworthy photographs of the Apollo 15 landing site, as well as traces. " lunomobile ", on which the American astronauts rode on the natural satellite of the Earth.
By the way, similar photos were sent to Earth by American space vehicles, but skeptics called them another fake, since the American device, in their opinion, cannot be objective in any way … And then suddenly a photo from the Indian, seemingly objective, Chandrayana … But conspiracy theorists have obstructed these images, too, claiming that they have too little resolution to judge anything. Indian scientists themselves spoke about low resolution, in particular Prakash Shauhan, who is the main researcher of the Chandrayana mission.
However, Indian experts were the least concerned about the struggle of conspiracy theorists with NASA. For them, it was more important that for the first time an Indian product of engineering and technical thought led to such impressive results as the flight of an apparatus to the moon. However, the success of the "Chandrayan" project could not be developed, as the connection with the device was unexpectedly interrupted. During the year of its operation, the lunar probe managed to transfer to the Earth more than 70 thousand images of the lunar surface.
After ISRO lost its connection with its lunar probe, strange rumors began to appear in the press of various countries that Russia was allegedly to blame for everything. Moreover, our country did this, they say, deliberately, in order to wedge into the Indian program for the exploration of the moon. Indian experts left this exaggerated theory without comment, since the dispute here could be like a dispute with skeptics of a man's flight to the moon …
Whatever it was, but Russia really showed a desire to participate in the preparation for the flight of a new Indian probe to the Moon - the Chanlrayan-2 project. The launch of the probe is scheduled for 2013, and the probe itself, thanks to the development of Indian and Russian specialists, will be significantly modernized in comparison with the 2008 Chandrayan. It is reported that the new probe, most likely, will consist of two segments, and will also carry a small automatic lunar rover on board. This project became a merger of two projects: "Chandrayan-2" ("Luna-Resource") and "Luna-Glob".
Viktor Khartov, general director of the Lavochkin NPO, once reported that the chronology of the project would be approximately as follows: an Indian launch vehicle and its flight module would launch a descent vehicle, produced in Russia, into the orbit of the moon. Then the device sits on the lunar soil, and an Indian lunar rover will leave the surface. Obviously, the launch will be made from the same cosmodrome from which the launch vehicle launched the first Chandrayan. This cosmodrome is located in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, and, due to its relative proximity to the equator, it is more profitable to launch spacecraft from it than, say, from Baikonur.
The Indian Space Agency has plans to launch India's first manned spacecraft in 2016. Many were very skeptical about such information from ISRO, since the level of funding that came from the state before it would hardly have allowed such an ambitious project to be implemented. But Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that this year funding for space research from the state will grow by 50%.
A manned Indian ship, if it will rise into outer space in the near future, it will be difficult to call it purely Indian. The fact is that back in 2009, the official representative of Roscosmos, Andrei Krasnov, said that the Indian side had made a proposal on the possibility of providing it with manned flight technology. In 2010, information appeared that ISRO could even buy out the manned Soyuz from Russia in order to give birth to its own brainchild on its basis.
So far, this brainchild is only in the plans, representatives of ISRO are already outlining a version of the first manned flight. It is reported that flight tests in unmanned mode will begin in early 2014, and by 2016 (2017 is the deadline), India will send two of its astronauts into space on a new spacecraft, which will have to spend at least a week in orbit.
The Indian side plans to bring to mind another very remarkable project. This project concerns the creation of the reusable spacecraft Avatar, which is expected to have a mass of about 25 tons, most of which corresponds to hydrogen fuel. It is noteworthy that the project was announced back in 1998.
The Indian side claims that the project has not yet been implemented, only because there was not enough funding. But by 2020, a full-fledged "Avatar", according to ISRO representatives, can already begin to surf the open spaces, delivering astronauts and astronauts from various countries of the world into space. The safety margin of this ship, again in the opinion of Indian engineers, should be enough for a hundred launches.
Many experts believe that with this project India is trying to reinvent the bicycle, but, apparently, the thirst for space exploration with its own hands is very strong in ISRO, and therefore the plans are actively supported by the country's official authorities. After all, healthy ambitions at all times have allowed countries to develop, and India, if no one interferes with it, will clearly not be an exception in this regard.
