“Earth is the cradle of humanity but mankind can't stay in the cradle forever."
Since the inception of time, the stars and the sky have been an enigma to mankind. Moon, is one of the most fascinating celestial objects. It follows, wherever we go. But recently, all we hear is “Chandrayaan 2 fails!”, “ISRO fails in the ambitious mission to the moon”, “Should India spend millions on space research when its population is starving?”.
As we all know, India being a developing nation, is a hub of young minds. When India began its space journey, the “superpower” nations made fun of it. They said that space research is not a cup of tea for India. But mind you, this is the same India that left the world speechless by launching Aryabhatta, which marked the entry of India into space research. Since then India is doing wonders in the field of space research.
Indians are history makers for sending 104 satellites in one go, and was a feat that left the entire world in bewilderment. Now, India has become a competitor in space research and exploration. Then came in Chandrayaan 1, India’s own moon mission which again was successful.
Aiming for the south pole of the moon, a mission that is unheard of propelled the scientists of ISRO to launch Chandrayaan 2. Launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on July 22nd 2019, the payload carried the Vikram lander, the Pragyan rover, along with the lunar orbiter. The craft reached the moon's orbit on 20 August, 2019 and began orbital positioning maneuvers for the landing of the Vikram lander. Vikram and Pragyan were scheduled to land on the near side of the moon in the south polar region at approximately 1:50 am on 7 September, 2019. All eyes were glued on the television at 1:50 am with Indians all over the globe eagerly waiting to celebrate the success of the mission.
Unfortunately, at about 2.1kms above the surface of the moon, communication was lost. That was a painful night for the people of India. But failure is the stepping stone to success, after all. The mission will definitely not go down as a fatal failure becausethe rocket did travel 3,84,397.9 kms, which is definitely successful given the huge unpredictability factor associated with space missions.
After failing in his first attempt to climb Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary said, "I will come again and conquer you, because as a mountain you can't grow, but as a human I can." Similarly, the scientists of ISRO will one day conquer the moon. A wounded lion is more dangerous and we Indians are the real lions. I, along with many Indians, believe that ISRO will come back stronger than ever.
