MOON IS A MILESTONE

ISRO’s journey

• Initially ISRO had to work in isolations for decades with only limited resources at its disposal.
• As major Space agencies around the world focused towards space and planetary exploration. ISRO’s main concerns were completely different.
• ISRO’s objectives were utilitarian which included setting up remote satellites, tele-medicines, tele-educations and tele-communications. These objectives gave ISRO a sociological outlook while being a technological organisation.
• Personalities like Vikram Sarabhai came up with the ideas of space exploration which fostered a spirit of scientific temper in the organisation and its employees.
• Today India’s space programme is a symbol of its rising power on the global stage and an example of how India is gaining strength in every sphere.

Significance of the Mission

• The mission will become the first lunar probe to explore the polar regions of the moon. The mission is a very important block in the overall long-term vision of ISRO.
• Ability to make a soft-landing on a planetary body is a crucial technology that will enable ISRO to do better in a number of upcoming missions.
• The soft landing will help us to know about the mineral resources and their composition as well as their chemical and physical characteristics.
• Chandrayaan Mission will provide valuable contributions to the global knowledge pool.
• Successful Chandrayaan 3 is also important from the point of view that ISRO creditability needs to be re-established after the unsuccessful soft landing attempted by Chandrayaan 2.
• Space is not limited to science but also has strategic, economic and military dimensions. It helps a country to position itself better in the global power framework.
• Successful Mission will definitely lead to boost in ISRO’s profile. It will result in a shift in India’s space programme and will work as a stepping stone to new achievements.

Conclusion

• Currently, India is at par with other agencies in terms of its Lunar programme, whereas NASA has taken a substantial lead in terms of deep-space exploration and Russia has expertise in sending humans to space.
• After the completion of this Mission, there are a number of other important missions ISRO like the Gaganyaan, Aditya L1 and Shukrayaan. ISRO will have to cope with the delay caused due to pandemic and Chandrayaan 2 and strategically start working on these missions.
• ISRO will also become more accountable to the public as it has been competing against the best international space agencies around the world. It requires greater efficiency in operations and greater effectiveness in results.
• It is very clear from here, that the future of space exploration will be based on collaboration than individual pursuits. Hence, ISRO needs to work collaboratively with other space agencies to learn and make use of their domain specialisation.
• This way the required space infrastructure could be shared and used in a way to align multiple goals set up different nations. For this to happen, ISRO will have to continue proving its mettle in space research and exploration.