Moon river

The good news about Isro’s launch of Oceansat-2 and nine other nano satellites is that it has made a habit of success. And therein lies the artlessness of triumph.

So Isro is firmly there in the big league where a successful launch of satellites, a necessary and crucial technological perquisite, is a routine affair. What is more important is the use made of the enabling technology to get the next-level magnitude of breakthroughs. Isro’s moon mission, Chandrayan, which failed in its orbit was not a washout; it has had some successes too.

It has played an enabling role in the confirmation of water traces — through H2O molecules — in the polar regions of the moon. Chandrayan carried Nasa’s moon mapper and what has facilitated the Nasa probe to get its data is the precise positioning of Chandrayan 100 km above the lunar surface.

There is revived interest in the moon. After the historic landing on the moon by Neil Armstrong 40 years ago, and the several Apollo moon missions that followed, the initial excitement petered out. No country, especially the Americans, wanted to continue sinking funds into an expensive programme. The moon was back in vogue in the 1990s.

Space voyages are now poised between a barren moon and a promising Mars, though travel to the red planet is still decades away. So even if stories of the mythical green Martians and satellite pictures of traces of dried-up river courses are crying out to be explored, they remain a little beyond what is feasible. The moon is the immediate, reachable frontier.

The implications of the possible existence of water on the moon would make the moon a potential space station. A colony in the moon is still a far-fetched proposition at the moment, but that shouldn’t stop the exploration of our neighbourhood. What is also of great interest is the hidden mineral wealth of the moon. For years to come, lunar exploration will follow the commercial trajectory and it should not come as a surprise.

What is to be seen is whether India can lead in the moon project in this sense. Landing an Indian on the moon is certainly an exciting prospect but it cannot be the goal of Isro’s moon mission. What will be of greater consequence is what we can get out of the moon. The more pertinent point to note is that there is more international cooperation than ever before to explore the final frontier; that is the way to go.