ISRO's visionaries and Chandrayaan-3: Scripting India's triumph at the lunar south pole

Carrying the hopes and dreams of 1.4 billion Indians, Chandrayaan-3 successfully made a soft-landing near the Lunar South Pole at its designated time of 6.04 pm on 23 August 2023. With this accomplishment, India became only the fourth nation to demonstrate a soft landing on the lunar surface and the first country ever to do so near the Lunar South Pole. This is not a one-off incident happening in a vacuum, this is a culmination of relentless perseverance spanning across decades envisioned by the greatest minds the nation has produced. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), formerly The Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR), was set up in 1962 by prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru on the suggestion of Vikram Sarabhai. This was the foresight of visionaries like Homi J Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai who were absolutely clear on where they wish to see the country in the coming years. They understood that after the World War II and its human cost, the world will see a new era of competition i.e., Information and Technology. They realised that if India wishes to become self-sustaining and sovereign, she needs to master this terrain as well. Perhaps no one has spelled out this vision better than the former president of India and chairman of DRDO, APJ Abdul Kalam, he writes in Wings of Fire: “Very many individuals with myopic vision questioned the relevance of space activities in a newly independent nation which was finding it difficult to feed its population. But neither Prime Minister Nehru nor Prof. Sarabhai had any ambiguity of purpose. Their vision was very clear: if Indians were to play a meaningful role in the community of nations, they must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to their real-life problems. They had no intention of using it merely as a means of displaying our might.” And indeed, Chandrayaan-3 is much more than a means of displaying our might, its mission objectives include conducting experiments on the moon ice at the lunar poles and extracting precious minerals like Helium-3 which could help us generate electricity without the radioactive pollution. The hydrogen in the lunar water could potentially become a fuel for future space missions and yes, the lunar water might even be drinkable after treatment! As rightly put by the Prime Minister Modi, “India’s successful mission is not India’s alone, it belongs to all of humanity.” While there is an element of national pride in this achievement, it would be myopic to reduce such a huge feat to a particular group of people on the planet. Global leaders like Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, as well as the Russian President Putin congratulated India and ISRO on this unprecedented achievement. NASA and European Space Agencies also acknowledged this achievement with NASA commenting “Glad to be your partner” in this space exploration journey. One would imagine that moments like these would bring everyone together to celebrate the ardent hard work by the scientists, but unfortunately, there are always individuals whose personal vendettas and agendas are perhaps bigger than space missions. Case in point, Prakash Raj, who, a day before the scheduled landing, shared a distasteful meme seemingly mocking Chandrayaan-3 and the scientists working day and night to make it possible. One can have a million disagreements with the current dispensation but this needs to be understood that this is not an achievement of any particular government, this is a culmination of collective dreams of all Indians, and any derogatory comment would be taken as an attack on the sanctity of this nation and its people. When Chandrayaan-2 failed to make a soft-landing in 2019, it was not the failure of an individual, institution or government; it was an unsuccessful attempt by a nation to make its mark on the lunar surface and on the world stage. Today, that mark has been successfully made. This mission is also remarkable in many more ways. ISRO, as an organisation, has also uplifted women, signalling a social revolution in conservative India where the home is thought to be the ideal place for women. As many as 54 women scientists and engineers were involved in the “Chandrayaan 3” project. An earlier BBC report quoted a lady mission director, Anuradha TK, as saying that anywhere between 20 to 25 per cent of ISRO’s 16,000 employees are women. These women are fondly described as the “Rocket Women of India”. Director-level women have put in 30-plus years participating in multiple missions. The way women have come up in ISRO since the 1980s, it is apparent that gender equality has been one of its defining values. Leaders and scientists like Homi J Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai and APJ Abdul Kalam always wanted the youth of this country to be solution-oriented, positive-minded and productive individuals, who always have the next milestone in mind. While Chandrayaan 3 is a big success, the race has just begun and as an ISRO scientist put it, “Give us the budget, we will go to Jupiter and Venus.” The government must also ensure that if our space agencies were to compete with the developed countries, they would need better funding and infrastructure. India, a nation left in tatters by the imperialist forces in 1947, has woken up from the ashes like the Phoenix. The New York Times and their ilk, which were, till yesterday, mocking India as a nation of snake charmers and cow-worshippers waiting to enter the “elite” space group, have been given an answer. And an answer, not through mere words, but through concrete, tangible actions out for everyone to see today and tomorrow. The writer takes special interest in history, culture and geopolitics. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views. Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.