The government wants to send a man to space, or perhaps even to Mars, by 2020. At least that's what the supremo of the National Space Agency Prof Dr Mazlan Othman says.

The director-general of the agency (NSA), which was only formed this month, hopes that "a Malaysian will be able to venture forth and step foot on another planet" before or by the time the nation realises its vision of becoming a developed nation in 2020.

"If we don't start now, we will be left behind when others travel to another planet," said Mazlan, as quoted by the national news agency Bernama .

Though she did not elaborate the details of this grandiose plan, she did reveal that the Cabinet is expected to approve it soon. She also admitted that there are no details at the moment on the scope of research for our astronaut in space.

As it stands, there is not much talk on this subject yet. Perhaps everyone is waiting for the prime minister himself to pronounce our next 'Malaysia Boleh!' project.

Anyway, the space programme is not something the premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad is ignorant of. Mahathir's visit to Russia on March 14-16 included a lengthy stopover at MV Chrunichev Space Centre in Moscow.

Mahathir's visit was an important step in the development of aerospace and satellite technology in Malaysia. The premier also managed to get two of Russia's foremost companies in aerospace and satellite technology  much bigger is the step to prepare a space mission.

We are talking about sending someone to space here. It may even be to Mars! Do we really need this? What will we achieve from this? And how much are we spending to realise this dream?

The government must make public what considerations it took in undertaking this mission. It must release its study papers on the programme so that the public will know why we are doing this.

This should not be about sending someone for the sake of sending him and not really achieving anything concrete at the end of the day.

The mission must justify the amount of money, time and energy utilised. It must not be undertaken to show the world that we have arrived at the 'developed world' club.

From being an agriculture-based country, Malaysia has moved up into an industry-based one. This shift has brought immense growth to the country. But it is a little too soon to be pushing for the next level.

One small step

Though the flip side argument will be that it's not wrong to make preparations so that we can do what the other developed nations are doing — going to space.

If we manage to do that, coupled with a successful space programme, then we will be able to build on our success and possibly be a leading nation in Asia as far as space technologies are concerned.

We can then sell our technology, offer satellite launches as well as give space for astronauts from other Asian and Third World countries. This will also generate a healthy income for us.

If this argument prevails, then the next question is, have we identified the 'chosen one' that will represent us in space?

This person will be our small step into the big business that might come on its heels.

The main necessary ingredient is the candidate himself. If we are going to send this person any time soon, then the NSA should have identified our astronaut. He, or even perhaps a she, should start undergoing training immediately.

The chosen one

According to the European Space Agency, the preferred age of an astronaut should be between 27 and 37, with a height ranging from 153 to 190 cm. The person must "speak and read English", be "well versed and [show] outstanding ability in scientific disciplines and applications" and has sufficient "flying experience as test, military or airline pilot".

According to US space agency Nasa, the astronauts must be well versed in areas of study such as engineering, biological or physical science or mathematics.

Given these specifications, our NSA should be able to come up with a small list of potential candidates. However, as we are aware of, there aren't many outstanding candidates in our country that could fulfill these criteria. If there was, we would have known of this person by now for his/her outstanding achievements.

Then, one can safely assume that we are in dearth of such a candidate. So the next best thing to do will be to groom one from now so that he/she will be ready to fly our flag in space sometime closer to 2020.

The NSA must identify a pool of young and bright students and put them in an environment that will give them the necessary training as well as the preparation needed. From this pool then, the best person can be chosen to represent us to space.

As for the rest, they will form the core group of scientists that will ensure Malaysia continues its space programmes with success — in terms of reputation and financial income.

However there need not be a strict deadline for this. The important thing is that we must do is with purpose and extract the best out of it.

We must not fall into the trap of sending someone to space just to make it an addition into the long list of 'Malaysia Boleh!'

K KABILAN is the news editor of malaysiakini .