India should spend more on space research: Bhyrappa

BENGALURU: Space colonization holds the hope of human survival in the face of extinction threats from global warming, nuclear weapons and natural calamities on Earth, novelist S L Bhyrappa on Sunday said calling for extensive space science research.
Speaking to media persons during a discussion on his latest novel Yaana, Bhyrappa said the success of the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) has proven India's growing expertise in space technology.
Notwithstanding criticism over the costs involved, India should take a huge leap forward in carrying out inter-planetary and inter-stellar missions, he said. India also has to realize that advancements in science and technology are the only effective answer to its growing needs of food, roads and communication, the author noted.
Participating in the discussion on Yaana, which narrates the story of two Indian astronauts - a male a female - travelling to Proxima Centauri, the nearest star, former ISRO scientist Satish S said the possibility of sending a manned spacecraft to a nearby star, as explored by Bhyrappa, could be a reality within a few hundred years.
"Bhyrappa's work is not just a piece of literary imagination, he has done immense research of laws of physics and space technology," he said. Vedic scholar Shatavadhani Ganesh termed the novel a fine mix of science and ethics.
"The protagonists, who are on a no-return space mission, are in an ethical dilemma as they have to parent kids who will be born out of frozen embryos. After much deliberation, it is the call of duty that wins in the end," Shatavadhani Ganesh said, adding that Bhyrappa's novel elevates the readers to a higher ethical plane.