India is launching its second attempt to reach the moon, after the first one, with Chandrayaan-2 in 2019, ended in disappointment. But with Chandrayaan-3 ready to begin its journey, the disappointment has been replaced by hope and optimism. For the next one month and more, a billion plus Indians would be closely tracking the circuitous path that Chandrayaan-3 takes to reach near the moon and then as it attempts to make a soft-landing sometime in the last week of August. The ISRO team has added several mechanisms to avoid a situation of the kind that resulted in the crash-landing of Chandrayaan-2 on the lunar surface.
As Chandrayaan-3 embarks on its journey, it is important to understand that moon-landing is just the start of bigger space adventures for ISRO. No doubt, moon-landing is a very important achievement in itself. After all, only three countries — the US, China and Russia — have managed to do this. But in the larger scheme of things, moon landing is only a milestone, and a stepping stone to the bigger ambitions and dreams that ISRO, and many other space agencies around the world, are pursuing. The ability to make a controlled and safe landing on any planetary body unlocks new vistas in space exploration and space-based science and research. The failure of Chandrayaan-2, and the pandemic, have disrupted ISRO’s timelines a bit, but it is not too huge a setback. ISRO has several important missions lined up after this. Among them is Gaganyaan, India’s first manned mission to space, a mission to study the Sun, and another one to Venus. The success of Chandrayaan-3 is crucial, of course, in as much as it will allow ISRO to build upon it to deliver on more ambitious missions. For several years in between, ISRO had remained bogged down with the routine and mundane, focused mainly on launching satellites. Space exploration, science and research missions were progressing very slowly. The opening up of the space sector for private companies was aimed at freeing up ISRO, allowing it to concentrate its energies and efforts on doing science, while the private sector companies fill in for providing the more routine services. The creation of a space technology ecosystem was also meant to broaden the talent and resource base which can help ISRO as well.
Because of the failure of Chandrayaan-2, and the intervening pandemic, the start of this new phase in ISRO’s life has been a little slow and troubled. Chandrayaan-3 has the potential to change that dramatically. It will not just reaffirm ISRO’s position as one of the front-ranking space-faring nations but also allow it to get actively involved in more collaborative missions with other space agencies. ISRO’s flight is just about to begin.
