The rage to gaze in wonderment

Sheer curiosity or thrill of discovering something new or exciting, or search for knowledge and information which can enrich quality of life has always fascinated mankind. Negligibly small, though it may be, earth still remains largely unexplored, be it in the atmosphere above, on the surface or under the seas. The lure of exploration has proven irresistible. The search for the unknown has also proved a fascinating theme for many wonderful novels

Exploration refers to the act of searching for new territories, resources, and knowledge, often driven by economic, political, and religious motivations. This quest for discovery led to significant encounters between different cultures and civilizations, resulting in both exchange and conflict. Exploration, either in search of places suitable for settlement, out of sheer curiosity or the thrill of discovering something new or exciting, or in search of knowledge and information which can enrich the quality of life, has always fascinated mankind.

Many great explorers in the history of the world such as Xuanzang, Marco Polo, Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus became legends and provided inspiration to thousands of others over centuries.

Among the most absorbing books I ever read is ‘Pale Blue Dot: A vision of the Human Future in Space’ by Carl Sagan. In the most engaging and readable, manner, Sagan describes the unimaginably insignificant place, which planet earth has in the Milky Way Galaxy, or, for that matter, which the Galaxy enjoys, in the Universe. Most of the universe is beyond the ability of the available technology to observe. Out of the remaining, or observable, portion, mankind has so far been able to cover but a small fraction. It is the residual agenda that presents a fascinating challenge. Exploration of outer space, therefore, is one of the most exciting and alluring activity that great astrophysicists have engaged in for centuries. Be that as it may, and negligibly small though it may be, Earth still remains largely unexplored by man, be it in the atmosphere above, on the surface or under the seas.

The search for the unknown has also proved a fascinating theme for many wonderful novels, some of which were produced as movies subsequently. One such was the ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas’, a science fiction adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne. It is often considered a classic within both its genres and world literature. In a spellbinding and adventurous underwater voyage, in the submarine ‘Nautilus’, commanded by the mysterious but brilliant Captain Nemo, the passengers Professor Pierre Arronax, a French Scientist, his helper Conseil, and an expert harpooner, Ned Land, visit many oceanic regions, some factual and others fictitious, viewing coral formations, sunken vessels from the Battle of Vigo Bay, the Antarctic ice barrier, the transatlantic telegraph cable, and the legendary underwater realm of Atlantis. The novel describes the protagonists’ adventures aboard the Nautilus, which was built in secrecy and now roams the seas beyond the reach of land-based governments. In self-imposed exile, Captain Nemo seems to have a dual motivation – a quest for scientific knowledge and a desire to escape terrestrial civilization.

The Polar regions, which continue, largely, to belong to the realm of the unknown, have also drawn novelists to construct exciting stories built around that environment. ‘Ice Station Zebra’, for instance, is a 1963 thriller novel by Scottish author Alistair MacLean, about Drift Ice Station Zebra, a British meteorological station built on an ice floe in the Arctic Sea which suffers a catastrophic oil fire; several of its men die, and their shelter and supplies are destroyed. The survivors take refuge in a hut with little food and heat. The American nuclear-powered submarine, USS Dolphin, is dispatched on a rescue mission. It reaches Zebra after a near-impossible trek. Eight of the men on the station are found dead, while the 11 others are barely alive. The surviving members of Zebra are brought on board the Dolphin. The sick men are cared for by Dolphin. And the station is abandoned.

India officially acceded to the Antarctic Treaty System on 1 August 1983. On 12 September 1983, the country became the fifteenth Consultative Member of the Antarctic. The Indian Antarctic Programme is a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional programme under the control of the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India. It was initiated in 1981 with the first Indian expedition to Antarctica. The programme gained global acceptance with India’s signing of the Antarctic Treaty and subsequent construction of the Dakshin Gangotri Antarctic research base in 1983, superseded by the Maitri base from 1989. The newest base commissioned in 2012 is Bharati, constructed out of 134 shipping containers. Under the programme, atmospheric, biological, earth, chemical, and medical sciences are studied by India, which has carried out 40 scientific expeditions to the Antarctic.

Another region that is a veritable storehouse of secrets and unimaginable resources is the portion of the planet that is under the oceans and seas. The lure of underwater exploration has proved irresistible for individuals, and institutions, either for the opportunity of sheer excitement it offers, for discovering valuable resources useful tomankind, as an activity in pursuit of facts which can expand the horizons of knowledge or for military or public safety purposes. Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface breathing gas supply. It usually employs a system called the buddy system in which divers dive in groups or two or three in order to minimise, if not totally eliminate, chances of accidents.

While on the subject of underwater exploration, it is noteworthy that India has more than made its presence felt in the Arctic region in particular. One notes with gratification the exemplary work being done by the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) and the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai. I remember with great pleasure the rewarding experience I had when I visited NIO at Goa in 2016. I was on a visit to that city of joy and merriment to fulfil a lecture commitment in the National War College, and made a request for a visit to be arranged to that institute. That was also to fulfil a long cherished desire I had had, since my Andhra Pradesh Fisheries Development Corporation days in 1979.

NIO has many commendable accomplishments to its credit. One of the feathers in its cap is the spectacular discoveries made from aboard research vessel, Sagar Nidhi, in terms of capturing detailed images and gathering critical data from hypothermal vents in an expedition which took place in December 2024. It was the first ever exploration at those specific sites and was jointly undertaken by scientists from NIOT and National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR). Despite a long search, mounted for close to four decades, for extraterrestrial intelligence, mounted by Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), no concrete evidence of life in outer space has so far been found.

TAIL-PIECE

Before I leave you to await the second part of this article, here is a thought for those who believe that ours is a great planet. We all know how movies and hotels are rated in terms of a number of stars. It has been said that no aliens have ever visited earth because it only has one star!

(The writer was formerly Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh)