Pune: “That’s one small step for (a) man and a big leap for mankind”. This is the famous quote of astronaut Neil Armstrong when he became the first human being to step on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
As the world nears 50 years of that historical event on July 20, 2019, there is once more excitement about the Moon, this time due to Chandrayaan II, which is scheduled to be launched today from Sriharikota.
Though, it may be the year 2030 when India’s astronaut first lands on the Moon, the journey towards it begun in the early 1970s. The vision document for India was made in 1970 up to the year 2000.
The Father of Indian Space Programme Vikram Sarabhai said our space mission should be human-centric, meaning it should be used for the people of the country rather than going into space.
“Thus, we made satellites for communication, knowing the weather, channels, rockets and did huge progress in science and space research,” said science enthusiast and founder of Sanshodhan Centre, Mayuresh Prabhune.
In 2003, when the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister and late APJ Abdul Kalam was president, India planned the Chandrayaan I Mission.
It was scientist K Kasturiranjan’s idea when he said, let’s go out to space.
Chandrayaan I was successful in finding water on the Moon. Chandrayaan II will land on the southern surface and look for helium.
“Although the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has not stated so, Chandrayaan II will probe into storage on helium on the Moon,” said Prabhune.
He said, “We were the first country to find traces of water on the Moon. Our rover was in the orbit near Moon for nine months and it could cover 95 per cent mapping with high resolution pictures. Along with our launcher, the US, Europe and Bulgaria too had sent their orbitars. US had sent its Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3).”
“After the success of Chandrayaan I, we got requests from many countries including China to help them launch their landers as we were the first country to do so at low cost. We spent only 10 per cent of the amount which US spends for such missions,” said Mayuresh.
For Chandrayaan II, there will be 3D pictures.
This time we are using Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) which weighs less. This will be a guided lander and will land softly, unlike the first Chandrayaan I, according to a press release from ISRO.
The Chandrayaan II orbiter will revolve around the Moon for one year.
It will have the capacity to communicate with Deep Space Network, added the press release.
The lander is named Vikram, after the Father of Indian Space Programme Vikram Sarabhai.
The aim of this mission is to understand the Moon, which could lead to discoveries that will benefit India and humanity as a whole.
