A scientific temper gave India its Moon triumph
₹615 crore, as per Isro. Getting to the south pole region is a leap in itself, as it makes India the first country to make a gentle landing here, but the advancements we hope for lie ahead. The whole idea is to expand the frontiers of human knowledge.
Our Moon mission has much to study. From what lunar stuff is composed of and what cosmic radiation it gets, to what seismic activity reveals of its interior and what its thin exosphere implies, there is plenty to learn. The prized scoop, of course, would be a chunk of lunar ice, perhaps an icicle Pragyan would have to scrape.
A sample of water up there would be cheer-worthy, as it would open up the possibility of its use for life support as well as the extraction of hydrogen for energy. The idea of a human-inhabited lunar station would get a lease of life. Weeks before lift-off, India had become the world’s 27th nation to sign the US-led Artemis Accords on space.
America’s own Artemis lunar programme, which envisions humans living on the Moon someday, has a budget of $8.1 billion for 2024. It’s more ambitious than what we have just achieved, no doubt, but Isro has shown what can be done with less than 1% of that outlay. Thank science.
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