Full Moon year
By Madhavan Nair
2009 has been a fantastic year for me and the country in space, where ISRO’s moon mission led to the path-breaking finding of water on the moon’s surface. This finding is unique for not only the Indian scientific community but the international community too. They are all now looking at India and its space programme. We are happy our Chandrayaan, the moon mission, has contributed to this discovery. If you look at the overall performance of Chandrayaan itself, it has been a fantastic success in terms of travel to outer-space, reaching the moon and conducting experiments.
For any nation to have such a success in the first attempt is unique. Other countries have not reached the target in the first attempt. The moon mission made India’s prestige climb globally.
Now is the right time for India to take up leadership in terms of space exploration. We have also shown how international co-operation can be implemented by bringing in the NASA and EASA scientists on board the Chandrayaan mission.
We can proudly say we have set the stage for a second mission for ISRO in the space exploration programme. We have plans about what needs to be done up to 2025 in terms of human space flights recoverable, reusable launch vehicles, microwave imaging, the planetary exploration and so on. I am happy that we have been able to give a focus to our future that will lead us to much greater heights in the coming years.
However, I was disappointed when we lost the spacecraft after 300 days. But that was more than compensated by the finding of water on the moon’s surface.
I am proud to have focussed in my seven years tenure at ISRO and come out with a plan for the future of Indian Space programme. Just like Vikram Sarabhai set the platform for ISRO in the 60s, we are now able to continue that tempo and set our sights on conquering space with specific programmes in the next 15 years.
The most defining moment of my life was taking the moon mission in a precise orbit around the moon. When we succeeded with the precision which nobody else achieved, that was the most moving moment of my life.
Since I have laid down office at ISRO, I look forward to using my talent to look at other problems in the science and technology area in India. If you look around, the problems are plenty. A question which haunts us is that when we can make a spacecraft, rocket and have a moon mission, why can’t we have an indigenously-built passenger aircraft to augment the growing air travellers.
We can do sophisticated things in space but the question is we don’t have a passenger aircraft of our own, even though we have a fighter jet. My desire is to have a passenger aircraft of our own. The passenger aircraft industry in the country has grown big. I will be happy to give shape to such a project.
Also, there are problems in terms of power, water availability, education, healthcare and many other areas which I believe only science can find a solution to. So, I dream of finding solutions to these things and would be happy to involve myself. ISRO’s telemedicine project was a step in this direction. 2009 made my dream come true: Of putting India as a world leader in space programme. ISRO’s cryogenic engine project is one such thing which will place India on a higher altar.
For me, 2009 was very eventful and successful. Even though we faced some disappointments, the greatest discovery of finding water on the Moon made up for everything else.
– As told to Kestur Vasuki
