October 22nd will never be an ordinary day in the history of India, as the nation gears up to send a Lunar probe. This is the fruit of the efforts of the visionary scientists of the ilk of Mr. Kasturirangan who pioneered the project in the late 90′s. And now its in to the final stages and is up and to be blasted off from SrihariKota on Wednesday October the 22nd. The moon is immortalised in the Indian mythology from eons and it really excites every Indian who’s grown up listening to the stories of our beloved Uncle, his adventures and his misfortunes following his curse. In India, the moon is at least given an askance all the 364 days, but now guess it ‘ll be adding up the extra day too, as India stamps its place on the history of space, being only the sixth nation(others being the US, Russia, ESA, Japan and China) in the world to hoist its flag on the Chanda mama.
What does it mean to India if It does so? Well, a helluva thing! According to Mr. Kasturi rangan one of the main motto behind the mission is to find the presence of Helium-3, that if found ‘d well, help us generate trillions of electricity that would generate power sufficient for chilliad of years. The goal is to also explore for any water deposits on moon, which trigers the speculation of setting up colonies in there, which makes the transport of water from earth economically unviable. So, the Chandrayaan ‘d be carrying US’s 6.5 kg Mini Synthetic Aperture Radar (MINISAR) that ‘ll look for water in the permanentl shadowed regions of Moon where the temperatures might be around 223 celsius negative. A high-Energy X-Ray spectrometer, a Made in India product ‘ll explore the polar caps for the presence of water.
The idiom “Over The moon” ‘d well be making sense as man sets his ambitions high on one day conquering the moon and setting up colonies over there. And if the mission hits the bulls eye not only can we set up our tents there but also find sufficient energy that could provide well for us for the remaining of our existence on earth, yes untill we teleport ourselves to, hope some of the other planets in our solar system or who can say even other solar systems.
Well, if you present a gift to someone and if they are over the moon then hmmm well, thats the question to ponder!
