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Book Review: ISRO: A Personal History

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Title: ISRO: A Personal History
Publisher: Harper Collins India
Author: R. Aravamudan with Gita Aravamudan

A delightful personal account of India’s space program from the very beginning. With personal memories from an era that otherwise would be lost. This is an important historical record of events that will in a few years be lost entirely in living memory. It is a non-technical account written by an engineer. The co-author Gita Aravamudan’s, experience in journalism is no doubt a key factor in the succinct and easy to read the narrative style.

As expected it is the personal anecdotes that really make this a fascinating reading. The reference to “chase a chimaera” wonderfully captures the extraordinary goal Sarabhai had set for India of 1962. Aravamudan’s personal accounts of meetings and working with Sarabhai, Bhabha and Kalam. While at NASA Wallops, his meeting the engineers from Pakistan captures a unique moment when the two neighbours’ space programs were at a stage of capability.

Visits by the Dalia Lama, J.R.D Tata, confrontation with local fishermen and union disputes paint a richer picture of Thumba than I had not come across before. The first-hand account of travelling to Australia to purchase a fully functioning telemetry station has surprising twists and turns. The public display of a moon rock at Sriharikota caught the imagination of the local population who turned up in unexpectedly large numbers to view it.

During his time as a director at Sriharikota, he describes the administrative burden of managing the town-like scale of the centre. As the director, he was responsible for the operations of a school, hospital, shopping centre, mosque and a temple in addition to managing the space missions. The authors remain apolitical and consistent with similar books by former ISRO employees. Naturally, the author is proud of his contribution and occasionally exaggerating ISRO’s achievement (i.e. ISRO being the first agency withMars Orbiter Mission to succeed with orbiting Mars on the first attempt). I would have liked to have seen more about the exchanges between the Indian and Pakistani engineers when the met at Wallops.

Historians of the future will be indebted to Aravamudan and his wife for chronicling a unique episode in India’s journey as a space power.

 

Book Review : Space India 2.0

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Title: Space India 2.0

Publisher:  Observer Research Foundation

Author: Edited by Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan and Narayan Prasad

Free download from http://www.orfonline.org/research/space-india-2-0-commerce-policy-security-and-governance-perspectives/

If you are looking for a single source of current state of play with the Indian space programme from a diverse collection of writers from in and outside India – this is it.

This book is a collection of 26 chapters written by authors with expertise and first-hand experience covering a broad range of topics. The book is divided into to five themes on Space Commerce, Policy, Security, International collaboration and concludes with Sustainability & Governance. The authors include former ISRO director, academics, scientists, researchers, legal experts and some from the growing community of space start-ups.

Authors come from USA, Australia, Japan, France and Russia give a unique international perspective on the policy and evolution of the space activities in India. Each chapter is written as a standalone piece and whilst there is some repetition the varied writing styles is quite refreshing. Between them the contributors discuss the increasing commercialisation of ISRO’s operations, the growth of space start-ups, India’s new ground-based assets to aid space debris monitoring, opportunities for India-Australia collaboration, the remarkable growth of internet users in India and increasing reliance on digital services for the benefits of all of India’s 1.2 billion population.

The space security section deals with some of the most fraught and testing topics that rely on space assets. In his chapter, Ajey Lile describes India’s conventional military assets with a surprising degree of quantitative data. For example, the Indian army has 1,300,000 active personnel, 6,464 tanks and 290 self-propelled guns. This level of detail a decade ago would probably have been seen as a security breach. As a retired wing commander, Lile is likely to have the authoritative sources for this data and clearance to put this information in the public domain.  Lile highlights a mismatch between India’s space strategy, its current space assets and the political indecision on how space should be used for national defence. Similarly, in her paper, Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan addresses the changing geopolitical landscape around the potential military use of space.  She points to the absence of political and financial commitment from the Indian government which does not bode well for India’s national security in the long-term.

Kumar Abhijeet emphasises India’s need for domestic space legislation to support not only the emerging private space sector but India’s obligation to international treaties such as the Outer Space treaty. In the 1960s there were just two countries with space programs, now there are around 60. International collaboration will be key to ensuring that space around the Earth used by communication, navigation and meteorological satellites is kept free of hostile activities that have marred human history on Earth. In its own way, this compilation from international authors is an example of the collaboration essential for humanity’s eventual use and exploration of space.

This book is an interesting up to date resource with an international perspective. If you want to know all about the Indian space program, this book along with the following four will offer a pretty good wholesome picture

The best part was a bunch of new writers that I had not come across before. I expect to read more of their work in the future.  I will conclude with my usual whing regarding the absence of a back-of-the-book index and a few typos that should have been picked up during proofreading.

Public Event. Anglo Indian Stephen Smith – India’s forgotten Rocketeer

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What: A public talk on Anglo Indian Stephen Smith. His life and achievements.

Where: The Larkhill Centre, Thorley Lane, Timperley, WA15 7AZ (about 3 miles from Manchester International Airport)

When: 19:30 – 20:15 Tuesday 21st March 2017

The event is organised by the India Study Circle for Philately. During the 1920s Stephen Smith founded the Calcutta Philatelic Club and the Aero Philatelic Club of India (which changed its name to the Indian Airmail Society in 1930). The rocket mail covers flown in his rockets were in demand by collectors then and remain so today.  A bit more about him on this piece I wrote here and checkout the update in my comment to the same post.

In the talk I will speak about  his personal life story and provided an update on having recently made contact with his  family (grand-daughter and great grand-daughter) living in London. The event is open to the public and is free – includes tea and biscuits.