The Morung Express

THURSDAY

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

23 OCTOBER 2008

7

PERSPECTIVE NEWS ANALYSIS, FEATURE AND DISCOURSE

It's all go for moon-struck India

A Raja Murthy

52-hour countdown began on Monday morning to India's first mission to the moon, with the unmanned spacecraft Chandrayaan-I being revved up to launch the country's expanding space ambitions.

These include a manned moon mission by 2015, a robotic Mars visit by 2012 and even a moon colony as a base for interplanetary exploration. The 1.3 tonne, cubeshaped orbiter Chandrayaan-1, which looks like a hurriedly gift-wrapped parcel in gold paper, will be blasted off from the Sriharikota space port near Chennai in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday, if weather gods keep the northeast monsoon rains away. Unlike previous moon missions from Earth, Chandrayaan-1 will make history as the first lunar craft to undertake a comprehensive close mapping of the moon, instead of focusing only on specific regions or aspects.

Chandrayaan, meaning "moon vehicle" in Hindi, will "prepare a three-dimensional atlas [with a high spatial and altitude resolution of 5 millimeters to 10m] of both the near and the far side of the moon", according to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). That India should be shooting for the moon at a time when the global economy is trembling fearfully speaks not just for the country's impressive economic stability, but also the quality of its space scientists.

They have ensured that Chandrayaan-1 also makes history as the least expensive moon ambassador from Earth.

Chandrayaan-1 cost US$74 million, cheap if compared, for instance, to Japan's $279 million Selene (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) moon probe, which took off from Japan's Tanegashima island space port on September 14, 2007. Moreover, $20 million of the $74 million Chandrayaan-1 cost went into valuable reusable infrastructure, such as building a trio of Earth-stationed trackers of moon-mission data - the Deep Space Network, the Spacecraft Control Center and the Indian Space Science Data Center, all located at Byalalu, near Bangalore in the south.

"We are spending hardly 0.5% of our national budget on our scientific programs, and what we are spending on Chandrayaan is hardly only 3% of our budget over the last five years," ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair told media.

Nair, who hopes to establish the world's first space institute with a fouryear graduation course, which would lead to an ISRO job, often mentions being pleasantly surprised at a Madras School of Economics study five years ago that revealed how India gets a $2 return for every $1 invested in its space program. India's space budget of $1 billion is one-tenth that of the US's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and less than half of China's space program.

Nair, however, does not mention that the study also pointed out that the average salary of ISRO scientists is oneeighth that of the US and Europe. The low labor costs are a major reason for India's comparative advantage in satellite production and launch costs, said the Madras School of Economics study.

More credit is due to Indian scientists as lower pay has not induced them to leave for higher-paying jobs abroad, or compromise on quality in producing advanced technology such as in Chandrayaan-1 to fly on a five-day journey to the moon and orbit it for two years. With India's Chandrayaan, China's Chang'e (named after the Chinese goddess of the moon) and Japan's Selene moon probe, Asia has earned a considerable edge in humanity's early steps into exploring what lies around the moon and beyond.

"The real space race is in Asia," acknowledged the headline of a Newsweek article in its September 29, 2008, issue, and it went further in its latest issue declaring India to be a world leader in practical applications of space technology which can improve the quality of life on Earth, such as assisting in communications, agriculture, weather forecasting, rural development and telecasting.

Besides the nationwide celebrations that will follow on Wednesday if the launch successfully takes off, more substantial carrots dangling for the moon expedition include the prospect of mining lunar minerals such as magnesium, aluminum, silicon, calcium, iron and titanium.

Added delights include the possibility of finding deposits of uranium and thorium to feed nuclear power plants on Earth. So the global scientific community is also expected to keenly track Chandrayaan-1, which also hopes to locate helium-3 on the moon, considered an environmentally clean nuclear fuel.

Chandrayaan-1 will firmly establish India as a leading space power. As

ISRO chairman Nair pointed out, India has so far managed to send satellites to a 36,000 kilometers distance in a geostationary orbit, but the moon mission will carry India's national flag tricolors to a distance of 400,000 km. Also aboard Chandrayaan-1 are 11 scientific instrument payloads, including from the US, Germany, Sweden and Bulgaria.

"The ISRO is not charging any money for the payload," said Sridhar Murthy, executive director of Antrix, the marketing division of the ISRO. "Chandrayaan-1 is purely a non-commercial, scientific mission." Murthy told Asia Times Online that India's moon mission is part of a space program expansion that includes increasing the capacity of its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-3) rocket to carry larger satellites (it can presently launch a 2.5 tonne satellite), launching a new ocean observation satellite and advanced communication satellites.

While Nair's claim of India having a technologically superior space program to that of neighboring China might be hotly debated across the border, India has already launched 50 satellites since its first satellite, Aryabhata, was sent up on the Russian launch vehicle Intercosmos on April 19, 1975.

Significantly, the low-budget Chandrayaan-1 ensures India is fast consolidating its reputation as a key cost-effective player in the growing stakes in global space commerce. India has indigenously developed two satellite launch vehicles to carry payloads, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) used for launch-

ing IRS satellites and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles (GSLV).

On April 28, India became the first country to send 10 satellites in one launch when the PSLV-C9 took off from Sriharikota with India's CARTOSAT-2A and IMS-1 satellites, as well as eight micro-satellites from other client countries.

Chandrayaan-1, too, will get a ride from India's workhorse space taxi, the 14year-old, 45-meter tall, 295-tonne Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), in an upgraded version the PSLV-C11.

The Chandrayaan-1 payloads include the US's Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (MiniSAR) from the Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University and Naval Air Warfare Center, Bulgaria's Sub KeV Atom Reflecting Analyser (SARA) from the Institute of Space Physics, Germany's Near Infra Red spectrometer (SIR-2) from Germany's Max Plank Institute, Lindau, Bulgaria's Radiation Dose Monitor Experiment (RADOM), and the US's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) from Brown University and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Not to be missed is the juicy irony of an Indian spacecraft carrying a NASA payload - the US led the global ban of high technology to India's space and nuclear program for decades after it tested its first atomic bomb in 1974. This, from the owner of the world's largest nuclear weapon arsenal, came as a blessing in disguise as Indian scientists brilliantly worked out indigenous technology that is now advanced enough for the US and European countries to have a piggyback ride in South Asia's first moon mission.

New HIV Vaccine Trials Raise Hopes

Stephanie Nieuwoudt Inter Press Service

A

fter two HIV vaccine trials were halted for safety reasons last year, a new trial is set to commence within the next few months in South Africa and the United States. Scientists will test a new vaccine formula produced in South Africa. It will be the first time a HIV vaccine manufactured in a developing country will be trialed in the developed world. Last year, trials using Merck Adenovirus 5 (AD 5) in South Africa as well as in the US and Australia had to be suspended because the US trial showed increased susceptibility to HIV acquisition among uncircumcised men. Dr John Moore of the Department of Immunology and Virology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, said the "vaccines were simply not good enough to stimulate the necessary immune responses at a sufficient level" at the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise's AIDS Vaccine 2008 Conference in Cape Town last week.

Not all health experts are convinced about the benefits of further vaccine trials, however, doubting that scientists will ever be able to develop an effective vaccine against HIV because of the unique nature of the virus. "HIV is an amazingly diverse virus. There can be 10,000 plus variations of the virus and it is constantly changing.

Because the virus mutates rapidly it is difficult to develop a vaccine," explained Alan Bernstein, executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, an international alliance of scientists, researchers and donor organisations.

Risk control Experts are also concerened about the health and safety of trial participants. "More basic research should be done prior to us testing the next candi-

date vaccine," cautioned Francois Venter, president of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society, while generally supporting efforts to find a vaccine. "We desperately need a vaccine, even if it takes a generation. We need to keep looking for every possible option."

At the conference, researchers said vaccine trials will from now on focus on finding out how to help the body produce antibodies to prevent infection with HIV altogether. Dr. Lynn Morris, head of the AIDS unit at South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases, said this was a necessary step as scientists did still not know enough about how the human immune system deals with HIV. Scientists complaint that lack of financial support from governments impacts negatively on research outcomes, especially in countries like South Africa, where HIV/AIDS policies and their delayed implementation have been criticised by experts all over the world.

However, the research community now pinned its hopes on newly appointed health minister Barbara Hogan, who replaced disputed Manto Tshabalala-Msimang just a few weeks ago.

Hogan told conference delegates that she was deeply committed to making HIV/Aids a priority during her tenancy: "There cannot be any more important meeting at this time. This is the continent, the region and a country in most need of evidence-based intervention to the HIV and Aids epidemic."

Hogan said she believed that it was not too late for South Africa to improve its health care provision. "The fact that 500,000 people are already receiving ARVs (antiretroviral treatment) in this country is proof that the damage (done by the previous health minister) is being repaired." She admitted, however, that she felt challenged when being appointed as minister of health.

Ethical concerns Vaccine researchers said they were highly cautious about not repeating the same mistakes from previous trials and vowed to closely adhere to ethical boundaries in the race to be the first to find a vaccine. "It would be unethical to embark on future trials if the same risk factors as those in the (previous) trials were present," said Professor Ruth Macklin of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. "The best course of action would be to avoid future trials that include probable causes of enhanced susceptibility (of HIV infection)."

"The question is, for example, if there should be exclusion criteria for uncircumcised men," Macklin said, since the health of uncircumcised men was put at risk during previous trials. Scientists need to weigh up potential benefits and risks for trial participants carefully before embarking on a new series of tests.

"We need to consider benefit to individuals and benefit to science and society. In most research trials there is no guaranteed benefit. The drug or vaccine being tested is experimental -- it may or may not work," said Professor Keymanthri Moodley of the Bioethics Unit at the University of Stellenbosch. "In the case of Aids vaccine trials, the risks are significant, but the benefits, if an effective vaccine is developed will be enormous," she added.

To lower risks, the upcoming vaccine trials will initially take place on a small scale before they are tested widely. The new products, SAAVI MVA and SAAVI DNA, will be tested on a small group of 48 participants -- 36 people from Johannesburg and Cape Town and twelve from Boston, said Dr Glenda Gray, researcher with the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) and the South African Aids Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI).

"The participants will be men and women from low risk groups, including some

who are celibate and some who are in monogamous relationships with known HIVnegative partners," she further explained.

SAAVI DNA has been developed by researchers at the University of Cape Town’s Institute for Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine, while the MVA vaccine has been conceptualised by UCT scientists and beenn developed and manufactured with the input of international biotech company Therion and the USbased National Institute of Health.

Dearest Apong,

Environmental pollution – vs – A Heinous crime against humanity “Environment” includes Water, Air and Land and the interrelationship which exists among and between water, air and land, and human beings, other living creatures, plants, micro-organism and property.

“Environment Pollutant” means any Solid, Liquid or Gaseous substance present in such concentration as may be, or tend to be, injurious to environment. Human Survival is menaced by another equally homicidal missile euthemistically described as Environmental Pollution. Articles 48-(A) of the Constitution provide: protection and improvement of environment and safeguarding of Forest and Wild Life.

The State shall endeavour to protect and improved the environment and to safeguard the Forest and the Wild Life of the Country.

It is made clear that Laws are enacted by Government Policy according to public opinion and aimed to eradicate crimes by punishing the defaulting criminals. In our country according to Teware Committee’s data, there are nearly 500 environment Laws including 17 State Law to control the crime of pollution and nature destruction. Article 47, 48 (A). 51 (g) Union list entry No 31 and State list entry No.6 clearly speaks of environmental protection and to take health care of citizens of the State because citizen health is fundamental of national progress. But in the existing polluted atmosphere , the World Health Organisation report exhibited that more than 80% of sickness and diseases in India are due to lack of pure water and proper sanitation.

Today for the work of a handful of polluters, the entire humanity is suffering and people are being deprived of their legitimate right of clean environment. They are forced to drink polluted water, compelled to breach polluted air, pressed to live under abnormal sound and atmospheric pollution. It is unfortunate that man had forgotten that he is a product of his environment and all his social moral, spiritual and economic well being depends on his harmony with nature only.

In F.K. Husain Vs Union of India, the Court held right to life is not only a mere animal existence and its attributes are manifold as life itself. The right to sweet water, fresh air and the right to wholesome environment are interpreted to be attributed to the right to life guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution. In Subhas Kumar Vs State of Bihar, AIR 1991 SC 420, the apex judiciary held: “Right to life is a fundamental right under Article 21 and it includes the right of enjoyment of pollution- free water and for full enjoyment of life”.

In Charanlal Sahu Vs Union of India. AIR 1990 SC 1480, it was held that “State should not play a passive role…. When assaults on environment caused by adverse socio – economic policies, pose a threat to the ecology, Courts cannot sit with their eyes closed …..Environmental protection is a constitutional mandate……It is the commitment of the country wedded to welfare.

In Dr. B.L. Wadehra’s case reported in (1996) 2 SCC 594 the Supreme Court held that Residents have Constitutional as well as statutory right to live in a clean City against Non-performance of mandatory duties by Municipal Corporation Authorities Concerned have a mandatory duty to collect and dispose of the garbage/waste generated form various sources in the city non-availability of funds, inadequacy or inefficiency of staff, insufficiency of machinery etc. cannot be pleaded/rejected as grounds for nonperformance of their statutory obligations.

Further because India boasts to be rich with cultural heritage of ancestors, hence to protect ancient monuments, in the famous “Tajmahal Case” a very strong step was taken by Supreme Court to save the Tajmahal Case being polluted by fumes and more than 200 factories were closed down. In the case of Shatistar of 1990, AIR 1990 SC 630 (pp.8 to 13), Supreme Court declared in a clear tone that a citizen has right for a decent environment in his living area.

In our country the pollution control boards and environmental protection measures are only confined to intellectual deliberations on a higher platform. Due to lack of public support all the enactments for environmental protection, show poor result and also the enforcement of the law is lax. All the environment protection laws should be brought under one umbrella and deterrent punishments need to be provided for environment- destructing criminal.

Now environment protection force, protection centres, like Police Stations to tackle and prosecute the criminal and environment protection Courts should be brought into existence.

Above all, we need a revolution which can be achieved a society by spreading awareness movement in connection with necessities of environment protection. Because, unless the citizen came forward to protect their own environment and safe humanity, all this step shall prove to be impasse and human civilization dragged toward destruction. It is the duty of every citizen to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the Forest, Lakes, Rivers and Wild Life and should not forget to love compassion for living creatures. Because they are very much members of our family. In Geneses Chapter 1 God saw that It was Good. And we inherited this beautiful Earth which is good in the eye of God from our forefather free of cost so also we have to handover this beautiful earth to the next younger generation without any committing mischief or environmental pollution otherwise the next generation will curse on us as we are answerable.

R. Daniel, Advocate, Gauhati High Court, Imphal.

Our Environment Dorothy Krusky

It's splashed across the news these days, global warming, pollution, our environment, destroyed by the very persons who are trying to reverse the damage.

Does it REALLY take one hundred scientists to tell us what we already know?

All those studies tell the same story as the Polar Bear's image floats on the ice.

The camera's zoom in as they speak of impending dangers not too far off.

Try explaining that to our wildlife, slowly they're going extinct.

It's all BIG news when a certain speicies is put on the endangered list.

I'd like to think we're not to blame but that would show such ignorance.

Look back to the times gone by, you only have to think of family life.

Our parents practiced recycling long before it became the rage.

In the road of life there may be obstacles, and there may be moments of jubilations, but whatever comes along, always take everything in your stride and believe in yourself and God. Don't give up on your dreams but work hard at making every one of them come true! Wishing you many, many happy returns of this special day! God bless.

With love, Abao, Ayao, Maong, Atao Aien & Asung + everyone else (u know who!)

"Turn off the lights! Close the doors!"

Eat fresh garden vegetables, no pesticides!

Clothes past down, worn right through, then piled away to use as rags.

Plasic bags, cardboard boxes all of them re-used.

It was only common sense you see to make the most of everything.

I sit back and wonder why such a fuss when all this mess was created by big companies and greedy men the dollar became their god.

We are responsible for all the changes do not blame those before us for they have lived a life of recycling we chose to live a life of convenience.

Readers may please note that, the contents of the articles published on this page do not reflect the outlook of this paper nor of the Editor in any form.