COVER STORY

'It is an unnatural existence up there'

Interview with Rakesh Sharma.

V. SREENIVASA MURTHY

India's first experience with manned space flight was in 1984 when a 35-year-old Indian Air Force test pilot spent eight days in space on Salyut 7 with a two-member Soviet team. The photographic image of the young Rakesh Sharma smiling at the world from out of his space suit etched itself in the country's public consciousness. On the flight, Sharma did work mainly in remote-sensing and biomedicine. He later joined Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in Bangalore, from where he retired in 2001 as a Wing Commander. He lives and works in Bangalore. In this interview to Parvathi Menon, Rakesh Sharma responds to questions on space travel.

What was the nature of the training before your travel in space, and for how long?

The training lasted 18 months. This was because I first needed to learn the Russian language as it was the medium of instruction as well as the language used during the conduct of the space flight. Broadly, the training consisted of, first, learning about the environment we would be operating in; then how our craft would perform in that environment; and, lastly, about the spacecraft itself.

Did your training equip you with any special mental and physical resources for space travel? Once chosen, how did you come to terms with the idea of your forthcoming foray into a world that all human beings have marvelled at, yet, so few have experienced? And has that experience changed you as a person?

Apart from the technical content of the ground training, a fair amount of physical training was also given. This was done to prepare the crew to stand up to the rigours of space flight. In this area, the training ensured that our speed, strength and endurance characteristics improved significantly.

Some training to prepare the body to acclimatise to zero gravity was also provided. Mentally, I did not perceive much happening - I mean from the training standpoint - but the crew doctor assigned to us was a psychologist by specialty. He kept a general eye on us. He did not appear very nosy or anything but I am sure that he knew, at all times, where we were at - psychologically speaking!

As regards your second question, I did feel extremely fortunate at having been selected for space flight training; fully aware that very few had had the opportunity to make the trip. The selection process had been going on for about eight months with some to-ing and fro-ing between Russia and Bangalore. So, when the process came to an end, there was a bit of relief too!

Space flight has changed my life all right - it robbed me of my privacy but did nothing else. It did not change me as a person. John Young, the American astronaut who flew the space shuttle on its first flight, was asked the same question and he said that "... if a mere space flight can end up changing you as a person, then your problem is something else!" I think he was absolutely right.

What sort of person gets chosen to be an astronaut? Does space travel require greater mental strength and resilience?

I think that a regular sort of a person, who is reasonably competent, mature and not given to too many heroics, gets chosen to fly in space. Of course, he or she has to be at the right place at the right time, meaning, lucky too. I would say that space flight requires a lot of discipline, whether it be to face up to the tough training regimen or to stay focussed on the job despite being surrounded by some stunningly beautiful imagery all around! It is an unnatural existence up there; staying cooped up in a metallic cylinder. Ironically, personal space is at a premium in space and has to be shared.

Therefore, utmost care is exercised in putting together a crew, which is temperamentally compatible.

A question that many people have asked, especially since the Columbia disaster: Somewhere under all the excitement, is there also fear? Of undertaking a high-risk enterprise, of failure of the mission?

I think that the fear of failure far outstrips the fear of undertaking a high-risk flight. Aviators, more so test pilots, routinely do the latter and have learnt to handle that bit. Again, fear of failure stems from the fact that the stakes are high. It is a costly game. Mistakes can cause loss of an experiment, loss of expensive equipment and, in extreme cases, loss of life. Any of these will most certainly result in a loss of one's professional reputation. And then, most of these situations are irretrievable and, what's more, not concealable. I mean, it is happening live on television with some 200 experts peering closely at the screen!

Can you share some of your special moments of space travel with us - the excitement, the fears, the joys? What are the non-material rewards that an astronaut seeks?

The most special moment has to be when you first look back at planet Earth. Then the vast emptiness around, which is starkly beautiful. Add to this is the pain and pleasure of being in zero gravity; pain of working in it and the pleasure of just being in it! I do not believe astronauts seek any non-material reward. It would be really selfish of them if they did. After all, they have been enriched beyond belief in this area by virtue of the fact that they have experienced the sheer exhilaration of space flight when so many others have not yet had the chance of doing so.

Does space travel make you an Earth citizen in spirit?

It most certainly does. Again, I labour the point which John Young made earlier. We do not have to go into space to come by this feeling, but it would certainly give a push in the right direction to fence-sitters in this regard. They will see a world without borders where the air flows freely, as does pollution for that matter! They will also see how fragile our environment is and how we are engaged in degrading it systematically. They will see that there is nothing even remotely habitable, for distances up to light years around us. That planet Earth is the only home we shall ever have.

But then we know all about all of this, sitting right here on Earth. So, where do we go from here?

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