Scientists keep fingers crossed

Space scientists in India and America are on tenterhooks as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump meet for the first bilateral in Washington on Monday.

At stake is the world’s most expensive earth-imaging satellite till date being jointly made by the NASA and the ISRO.

The satellite aims to study global environmental change and natural disasters. However, climate change seems to be a red rag for the current American administration.

Mr. Trump calls climate change a hoax created by China by adhering to his views that “the concept of global warming was created by the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive”.

On the other hand, Mr. Modi has penned a pictorial book — Convenient Action: Continuity for Change — that compiles his actions and beliefs on climate change.

Recently, the U.S. walked out of the Paris Climate Change Treaty while India continues to honour its commitments.

Can a middle ground be found or can the jointly-made satellite escape President Trump’s anti-climate change gaze?

Cause of worry

This is what is worrying scientists at Pasadena, a suburb of Los Angeles, where at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory work has begun in full earnest to realise the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite called NISAR. Scientists at the Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad are also anxious as they go about fabricating unique components for the massive satellite.