The SUPARCO Lag

In 1961 when our only Nobel laureate Dr. Abdus Salam and Commodore WJM Turowicz were busy laying down the foundations of SUPARCO, little they might have thought that 52 years later, the nation’s space agency would either, still be renting foreign built satellites or else hitchhiking on foreign rockets to launch indigenously built satellites into space. 

The beginnings of SUPARCO reflected the dreams and goals of its founders and the scientists involved. Frequent  rocket tests, collaborations with NASA regarding training of Pakistani scientists and engineers, and with keen government interest in the field,  one might have  had guessed that within a decade or two we would be sending our own satellites into space using indigenously built  rockets. But then Dr. Salam was shunned by the Pak government, collaborations with NASA stopped, government lost interest  and ever since that time SUPARCO seems to exist just because it has to, without any entrepreneurial zeal, devoid of innovation and lacking a clear cut direction. 

Currently, SUPARCO is undertaking programs relating to communication satellites, remote sensing, geo graphic information systems and space studies. It provides services in land surveying, crop monitoring, vehicle tracking systems etc. Its customer base is diverse; ranging from the Kutchi Abadi Authorities toPakistan Railways.  Also in its Space Program 2040-approved by Ex-Pm Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani- it plans on producing and launching its own satellites by the year 2040.

But is that it? Will our satellite system be only focused on crop monitoring, land surveys and tracking?  Where’s the vision in it?  The services that SUPARCO provides are a staple in any standard space agency-there is nothing special in that. Also, achieving indigenous satellite production and launch capabilities and that too by 2040 speaks volumes about the ‘vision’ that is set by SUPARCO. When right now, our neighboring countries are sending probes to mars and beyond, achieving the ability to develop and launching satellites by 2040 is just not enough! 

We have to realize that a well functioning space program is crucial to the development of a nation. From enriched baby food to solar panels used in homes, there have been many commercial spinoffs from the technologies that were originally intended to be used in space. Space Technology development does not only benefit one particular branch of science but is equally beneficial to an economy as well.  According to former NASA scientist, Scott Hubbard, for every 1 dollar invested in NASA projects $7-8 worth of goods are produced in the industry!

SUPARCO now has to take on a more active role and its vision 2040 should really be vision 2020. It has to work on increasing coordination with schools colleges and universities so that a crop of future engineers and scientists are motivated, and their skills honed. The government has to pay more attention to SUPARCO regarding its developmental projects. As Antoine St. Exupery once said, 

“If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea”. 

Thus, the government along with SUPARCO should undertake initiatives to educate public about space sciences in a way that they understand in order to build popular support

Dear readers, Space programs not only satisfy human desire to explore the universe but also create thousands of jobs; jobs that are certainly not limited to engineering only but spill over to diverse fields, ranging from textiles to psychiatrics. 

The shambles in which European and USA economies are in right now means that the stage for the next space race would be set in Asia, aided and abetted by western companies who have the expertise but lack funding support from their respective governments. Indeed China and India are making significant progress in space exploration; the former is planning to send manned missions to the moon while the latter is sending a space probe to Mars by November. 

 The development of an ambitious space program would not only benefit Pakistan in the military field, but will also create an air of innovation and ideas that will cross-pollinate many separate scientific and business disciplines.  

Nevertheless, we face the daunting task of tackling our domestic terrorism and political issues in parallel to the development of a proper space program and that requires not only a visionary leadership but also entrepreneurs who are ready to propel us into the future.

This is not the time to lag behind. The next space race is ‘on’ in Asia and we have to be a part of it, otherwise we would be left very far behind, even farther than we are right now.

Putting a Paki on the Moon

The soil that we tread on is a great witness to the evolution of humanity, from caves to the high-rise buildings of cold metal and hard brick. These sand particles and the pebbles have borne the footsteps of Prophets, Messiahs, Writers, Inventors, Conquerors and Philosophers. They have seen what we have not seen, for we the humans mostly tend to forget what we did in the past and what are we capable of doing.

As I tread on a small pebble strewn path near my university under the night sky, I look up at the crescent above me. It is comforting to feel earth’s closest space neighbor’s cool bluish light on me. As I look up, I can’t help but focus my eyes on a patch of moon where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed. That first step on 20^th July 1969 was the epitome of USA’s advancement in science and technology. No other country has done it since the Apollo missions and it is unlikely to repeat that feat for another two or three decades.

Then a very crazy thought entered my head, but the thought was ridiculous, verging on blasphemous. I ignored it and continued my nighttime walk.

I came back and tried to forget what I had just thought but the thought somehow stuck. Then another thought came in. This one more ridiculous than the other. I laughed at it, this second thought was to write down and share the first thought that had come in my head. I told myself that if I ever write it down I would be branded as a “Lunatic” ( ah the irony of words).

But then my mind is like PM Gillani and my thoughts like Zardari. The former always succumbs to the pressure exerted by the latter. So here I am, penning out what I had thought that night.

Pakistan needs a Man on the Moon.

Now go on laugh, of course I can’t blame you, can I ? How can a nation suffering from electricity and gas shortages, strikes, war, death and destruction, who doesn’t (apparently) has money to build even a dam can ever EVER dare to hope to put a man in space let alone the moon. It seems like disrespect, mocking if you like, to the sufferings of a nation consisting of 180 million souls, 63% of whom fall under the age of 25 and where the literacy rate hovers somewhere around 50% and whose population still believes that Neil Armstrong really did hear Azan on the moon despite the fact that sound needs air to travel-And there’s no air on the moon!

But, just bear a few moments with me and imagine, what would it be like to have the Pakistani flag on the lunar surface. Wouldn’t it be exhilarating? Wouldn’t it be just a pleasure to show your passport on the airport and not have eyes brows raised but be greeted with a smile because you belong to a nation that had just conquered the moon from the Americans, to have the world label you as bold space entrepreneurs rather than as a nation of conservatives and blowhards. To think that the world would be a better place with the achievement of a crippled nation sending a man to the moon and ushering the world into a new space age seems like stuff from a Hollywood movie. But allow me to make an argument here. If a nation with a literacy rate of 50 % can make cruise missiles, a nation where a sewing needle is imported from China can make a nuclear device, a nation where half the population can’t even afford a computer, can boast world’s youngest Microsoft certified professionals, cannot build a rocket and lunar vehicle to take a man to the moon, I would say you are kidding me.

When we spend more than 43 billion dollars in fighting “our own people” for some nation thousands of miles away from us, when we spend more than 60 million dollars to help those affected by the war on terrorism, when our military budget increases with each passing year, where the security expenses of the PM and the President per annum alone surpass the 500,000 dollar figure and then you tell me we can’t afford to put a man on the moon. I say you sir are kidding me.

It is at times like these where nations can either rise or sink. Just like that tight ropewalker about to jump to safety after walking the whole length can either slip and fall or safely step on the ledge and take a bow, imagine Pakistan to be that tight ropewalker. Albeit, small, emaciated, starved, crippled and limping. I say costs don’t matter. What matters is the will of the people to leave a mark on history. That’s a common feeling that’s shared by people who believe in team effort, who believe that no matter what, obstacles can be overcome. Nations like these are powered by the almighty trinity of Youth, Intellectuals and Military. And believe you me. Pakistan has that. Just think, how much Pakistan can gain in technology when its every engineer would be involved in the lunar mission, imagine the number of technologies that would be introduced, the billions of foreign investment, new management practices, newly emerging centers of Pakistani economy, explosion of educational institutes, the flood of engineers and entrepreneurs, Pakistan would be changed forever and with it the South Asian region, or may be the whole world itself. Pakistan’s name would become a by word for heroism, adventurism , inspiration and motivation. When schoolchildren will read poems about the Pakistani mission to the moon rather than King Bruce and the Spider.

Imagine a day when every Sindhi, Balochi, Pashtun, Punjabi, Sunni, Shia, Barelvi, Ahmadi, Wahhabi, would be looking at that shiny sphere in the sky, as one single entity all thinking the same thing:

“Has it landed yet?”