Economy: Is India`s Mission To Mars A Smart Move?

(Drivebycuriosity) - Planet Mars has captured the fantasy of mankind for centuries.  The US, Europe and the former Soviet Union had already send space crafts to the red planet. Now India wants to be a member of this "Mars explorer club". The South Asian country plans to start an unmanned space craft tomorrow that should enter an orbit around the object of desire on September 2014 (cbc). "The mission aims to map the Martian surface, study the atmosphere and search for methane gas, a sign that the planet can support life", reports Bloomberg (bloomberg).

There are the usual detractors who call the ambitious mission inappropriate because of the widespread poverty in India and the currently slowing economic growth rates in the South Asian country.

I believe that India`s mission to Mars is a smart move. The Mars mission could advance the whole country and the whole Indian population should benefit from it. It will foster the technological progress in the South Asian country and could speed up the economic growth.

If the Mars mission is successful the government and the participating administrations and companies will get a lot of information, not just about space flights and the red planet. They will gain scientific knowledge and will learn how to control & operate complex systems over a long distance, how to explore faraway regions, how to measure remote conditions,  transfer & process data and much more. All those information will stimulate technological innovation which is a basis for the growth of the economy.

Even if the mission would fail (according to Associated Press 23 of 40 Mars missions have failed so far cbc) India`s engineers, computer scientists, software developers and other professions have already learned a lot. This knowledge could be used to advance the technological sector (computer, communication systems, software, internet, robotics, chemistry and more) which is stimulating economic growth.

India had already send a lot of satellites into the earth orbit. Those devices are used for communication and weather observation.  Last month, they tracked a cyclone heading for Odisha state in eastern India, giving the government time to evacuate a million people, writes Bloomberg (bloomberg). The technical expertise gained from the Mars mission could help India to advance their satellite based communications systems and offer it to other countries. The project also could open & expand export markets for space rockets, software and other Indian industries. The reputation gain from a sucessful Mars operation could boost a lot of Indian industries on the global markets.

India´s Mars mission - if successful -  could even boost the economic sentiment which has been gloomy recently, rekindle business confidence and restore trust in the country. This could stimulate investments and may attract fresh international capital. Therefore the Mars mission could reaccelerate economic growth in near future.

Fingers crossed.