Just a few days to this incident . We attempted to make History by launching CHANDRAYAAN 2 the Follow up mission to CHANDRAYAAN 1 (2008) . The mission would have accomplished when it’s Lander (VIKRAM LANDER) would have landed safely and completely on moon at around 70°C . We came so agonisingly close but it didn’t happen ….. Goddamit . If it would have happened we would have become only the 4th country in the world to achieve this feat (SOVIET UNION , US and RUSSIA) Let’s look at this whole Journey briefly and discuss this issue .

It was launched on 22 July by GEOSYNCHRONOUS Satellite launch vehicle Mark – III (GSLV MK III) . It comprised of three main parts – the ORBITER , the VIKRAM LANDER and the ROVER PRAGYAN . The most important , Lander was named on VIKRAM SARABHAI the father scientist of indian space programme . The Rover derives it’s name from SANSKRIT (PRAGYAN) meaning Wisdom , it has the special feature of leveraging solar energy for it’s functioning . First one had to escape Earth’s gravity ensuring going at the right speed , making 5 Complex Manoeuvres to gain Momentum before going far enough to be caught up by Moon . Then we had to slowly decrease the speed to land perfectly .

Now when it placed itself completely on MOON’s Orbit. The Lander tried to make a soft landing on Moon , which was the most complex job of all and that’s what mattered the most and where it missed it . Firstly it cleared ROUGH BREAKING PHASE swooping down it’s distance from moon and dropping down it’s Velocity . Now in the FINE BREAKING PHASE it had to re orient itself and look for pictures of slopes and hazards . Just in the final 2 minutes when it was just 2.1 km away from moon it lost the contact . The green lines on screen showed it has strayed from it’s path . What was it ? Did the Thrusters overperform ? Did it lose altitude and didn’t recover ? Whatever it was , what mattered was that we couldn’t land on Moon . Just like the CHANDRAYAAN the hopes and expectations of 1.3 Billions crashed .

The most heartbreaking scene was ISRO Chairman K SIVAN breaking down after ISRO failed to regain contact . Such a senior person who has achieved so many things in life , ISRO has achieved so much under him . But what made him cry was the realisation that the hearts of 1.3 billion people are broken . It was a very remarkable thing by our PM to hug him , console him and assure him that the whole Nation stands with ISRO . That is a quality of a true leader , whether you applause your team on victory or not but make sure to console them on a Loss .

CHANDRAYAAN 1 whose follow up mission this one is was launched in 2008 and was Operational for 312 days . It discovered traces of water on Moon and state like ice in the north polar region . It’s other achievements were detection of Magnesium , Silicon , Aluminium and global imaging of moon . But more information was needed regarding how water is distributed exactly on the surface . One remarkable point about this Mission was ; we tried to land on the South pole region which no other country has tried on their first attempt (eveyone landed on North Pole only) . CHINA’S chang’e 4 became the first ever spacecraft to land on far side on the Moon . We chose south pole because :

• It is larger in surface area and there is a high possibility of finding Water .
• This side always remains in shadow as only low angle of sunlight strikes it .
• South pole region is extremely cold and contains CRATERS that are cold traps and contain Fossil record of solar system as well .

These factors made south pole worth investing .

But so tough were the challenges , such as :

• Lunar terrain is Rocky and Moon’s gravity is 17% that of Earth .
• Earth rotates at 400,000 km/h while Moon at 4,000 km/h . Coming out if one and going into another is not a Joke .
• Moon Dust rises and falls can disable sensitive instruments on a lander specially those which were not a part of the previous mission .

The scientists are trying to regain connection with the lander which has crashed and is tilted on Moon but chances are at it’s minimal . But it will continue to Orbit around Moon for next year sending the images by scanning and mapping the surface . We have heard about the end of the Rover and Lander but the ORBITER gliding 100km above the Moon still bears the CHANDRAYAAN Torch and INDIAN Flag . It will be beaming us back Pictures from there . The images may help us find out what went wrong , where we missed which may turn out very useful for future Planetary missions .

70 students from different schools across India were selected through a test conducted by ISRO . They were getting the golden opportunity to witness India’s landing on Moon along with our honourable Prime Minister . First time in my memory did it happened that people were sticking to their TV Sets at 1:30 am at Night . It feels very proud but if you would ask me ; personally I think that these kind of scientific missions should be done with as less as tantrums possible . I am not saying BURI NAZAR or something like that but it’s not a Cricket match going on here where the whole country is watching late till night and lucky cricket fans are sitting in the Star Sports studio . Publicising it that much brings us straightaway in the eyes of the world which we should avoid until we have done the Job .

Whatever be the case now it’s all over but should we call the Mission a Failure ? I don’t think so , in my opinion it will be both unfair and wrong to call it so . Coming so close of such a tedious mission can , or we can say should be called a Success which should be celebrated by all of us . According to ISRO scientists also it’s Technically a Success and has achieved 90% of it’s targets perfectly . Moon is 3,84,400 kms away from us and we failed at 2.1 km that is 0.0005463% of margin . Even this failure is a foundation for new beginnings .
Even this failure has a taste of success in it .
Kudos to our Scientists and ISRO . Proud of you .

Average people have wishes and prayers while the confident ones have targets and missions . For a dream to come true you have to first dream . We learnt an important lesson that life never goes smoothly but still we should aim high , try hard and still have the courage to face Failure also . ISRO holds many records such as Cheapest mission to Mars , getting to Mars on first attempt , launching 104 satellites in a single go . Even this Mission was way cheaper than rest made by the world . Even USA failed 12 times , CHINA and RUSSIA 8 and 6 times respectively ; so it’s a not the case that just because we are very successful unit we don’t have the permission to Fail sometimes anymore . Our RESULT does not decide our success or failure but our EFFORT does ; which was at it’s fullest . It’s not a failure but a step back to make it better and bigger .

This was not the last mission nor the last try we have made going on to Moon . Okay , we lost this time but we will all come together and will win eventually by reaching out on the Moon ; it’s the time to take in account all shortcomings and faults and prepare for the next mission . We missed AKSHAY KUMAR’s next movie script this time , but we all can hope that he gets his script and we all our proud moment with CHANDRAYAAN 3 .

“TU CHAAND HAI NAKHRE TO DIKHAEGA ….. YE BHARAT TERA AASHIQ HAI LAUT KAR AAYEGA … !!!!!

“Sometimes we don’t land or arrive the destination we want to . The important thing is that we took off and had the belief that we can . Our current situation is not and never our final destination . It always comes with time and belief” … !!!!!

JAI HIND

ARUNESH SINHA