Indiagenous miracle: ISRO chief S Somanath highlights world-class made-in-India components, sets sights on Mars, Venus
Bengaluru, August 23
ISRO Chairman S Somanath on Wednesday toasted the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, crediting it to the “pain and agony” of all scientists who persevered on it, and expressed confidence that the space agency would similarly land a spacecraft on Mars in the coming years.
Acknowledging the contribution of a generation of leadership by the scientists of the country’s space agency for the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s success, he said this is an “incremental progress” and “definitely a huge one”.
The journey to the moon is tough and soft-landing is difficult for any nation to achieve today even with the advancement of technology, he said, pointing out that India achieved it in just two missions. Chandrayaan-2, the first mission with the objective of soft landing on the moon, had a narrow miss, while the Chandrayaan-3 mission was perfectly executed.
Chandrayaan-1’s objective was only to place an unmanned spacecraft in an orbit around the moon. “It (success of Chandrayaan-3 mission) gives confidence to configure missions to not only go to the moon, but also to go to Mars, sometimes (perhaps) land on Mars, may be in future go to Venus and other planets,” he said. Undertaking the Chandrayaan-3 mission was difficult, he said.
Key scientists behind Chandrayaan-2 were also part of the Chandrayaan-3 team, he said. “Most of the people who were with Chandrayaan-2 are with us helping us to do Chandrayaan-3. They are a part of this, they have gone through such an agony… the technology that we have in Chandrayaan-3 is no less complex or inferior to any other technology that goes to the moon. So, we have the best of the sensors of the world, best in class (equipment) in Chandrayaan-3,” he said, explaining that it was a completely ‘Made-in-India’ mission using world-class components.
Conveying the greetings of PM Modi, he said, “The Honourable PM called me and conveyed his greetings to each one of you and your family for the wonderful work.” Addressing the ISRO team, he thanked all those who prayed for the mission’s success, and in particular named ISRO veterans like AS Kiran Kumar (ISRO ex-chief). “They have been helping so much, they were part of the team to help them (team) to get the confidence and get the reviews done, and to ensure that nothing goes with any mistakes,” he said. — PTI
14 earth days (or 1 lunar night) the lander and the six-wheeled rover are designed to operate
1,752 kg total mass of the lander and the six-wheeled rover
Rover’s job
The 26-kg rover is armed with a spectrometer to analyse lunar soil and rocks, and a laser-induced spectroscope to derive their chemical composition
Estimated cost of Chandrayaan-3 mission: Rs 615 crore
Cost less than ‘Barbie’, ‘Oppenheimer’
Rs 1,196 cr cost of Hollywood hit ‘Barbie’
Rs 825 cr budget of Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’
Rs 700 cr spent on mythological action film ‘Adipurush’
Chandrayaan-3’s success heralds India’s new flight into space, testifies that we can all aspire for the moon and beyond… The country will forever remember this day. It will inspire us to move towards a bright future. It will show us the path to the realisation of our dreams. This day is testimony to how we can win after drawing lessons from loss. — Narendra Modi, Prime Minister
