Moon mission has given us lot of hope, say IUCAA research students
At IUCCA, located in the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) campus, this in-house screening of the Vikram lander on the moon’s surface had been organised for scientists and PhD students
India’s moon mission, Chandrayaan-2 has inspired students across age-groups in spite of the dramatic setback just minutes before touchdown on the moon’s surface on Saturday.
“This mission has given a lot of hope to a research student like me in the space science field. After completing my research I would certainly like to work on these missions in future,” said Parisee Shirke a PhD student at Pune’s Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA).
She was among the 100-plus students, scientists and faculty at IUCAA, along with some of their family members, who watched the live streaming of the dramatic moon mission, starting from 11.30 pm on Friday till 4.30 am on Saturday.
Parisee was full of praise for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists who worked tirelessly on the entire mission, right from its design, planning and execution. “We hope the lost communication will be restored soon with signals from the Rover,” she said.
At IUCCA, located in the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) campus, this in-house screening of the Vikram lander on the moon’s surface had been organised for scientists and PhD students. The students had made three replicas of this project - GSLV Mark 3 launch vehicle, Vikram lander and Pragyan Rover, which were kept on display at the Bhaskara auditorium.
“Chandrayaan-2 is ISRO’s big engineering and science success with more than 12 payloads on board. Eight of which are still safe and working great on the ‘Orbiter’. These eight payloads or instruments will vastly increase our knowledge of the moon and will shed some more light about the solar system in general,” said Pratik Dabhade a doctoral research scholar.
Mousumi Mahato, another fellow researcher at IUCAA was upbeat about the entire mission in spite of the ‘last mile’ failure. “It’s always darkest before dawn. Although Chandrayaan-2 faced some challenges at the last minute, ISRO’s attempt to land a robotic spacecraft on the Moon is worthy of applaud. The orbiter with eight payloads is still in good health and will give us clues about the lunar surface and complete characterization of water, hydroxyl, and several minerals present there,” she said.
“It is indeed a signature of great success of ISRO. We are very proud of ISRO and hope for more missions to come,” she added.
IUCAA’s director Somak Raychaudhury described the mission as “a big achievement for India.” He said, “This mission has given new hopes and inspiration to millions of children and young researchers in our country in the field of space science.”
Speaking soon after contact was lost with the lander Vikram, Raychaudhury said, irrespective of the results, the moon mission is still a big achievement for India. “We have heroes from sports, Bollywood and other fields, but now the time has come when we should look forward to the technology research heroes of our country,” he said.