New Delhi:
India's maiden mission to the moon Chandrayaan-1 has found clinching evidence of water on the moon. Dr K Kasturirangan, former Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, spoke to NDTV on this landmark discovery. Ten years ago it was Dr Kasturirangan who conceived and formulated India's plans of undertaking the Chandrayaan-1 mission.
Q: Dr Kasturirangan, is this finding of water on the moon a very significant Indian find?
A: This is India's entry into planetary exploration with a bang. I think Chandrayaan-1 has the privilege of seeing water conclusively for the first time after a 40-year international quest for this illusive liquid on moon. So to that extent it is a very very significant event and a big development for Indian scientific which developed the Chandrayaan as a total mission and also for the international cooperation with United States, which put in the most crucial Moon Mineralogy Mapper, which finally detected the presence of water. So from both angles I think it is very significant for India and for the scientific community. And of course for the whole country because the country was so excited when it was launched and it went to the moon and subsequently of course it did some of the most fantastic observations with some very unique instruments with a state of art spacecraft.
Q: Will this finding help mankind in a big way in the long run?
A: No.... I don't think that is the way we should look at this finding of water on the moon. You know there is this spirit of exploration for the human being. That's how you know the human being has today come to travel from land to ocean to atmosphere to airplanes and then to space, so there is obviously is an urge to explore beyond and if you have to explore beyond and you have to have the human presence beyond then you need certain essential things that support life and one is water. So the more water we find in celestial objects beyond the Earth, the more chances first of all for possible habitation in those areas and depending on temperature and many other things and also this very fascinating possibility that we may be only one step away from possibility of life itself. So that is what makes this kind of presence of water and its detection in other moons or planets.... a very significant step in the context of the urge of exploration by the human kind.
Q: Ten years ago on that first anniversary of the Pokhran blast you told the world and announced that India can undertake a mission to the moon. Did you anticipate that in ten years Chandrayaan would be there and come back with such a startling finding? How does it feel to you personally?
A: I think when we made this announcement in front of the glitterati of Delhi comprising of intellectuals, policy makers, media people and Pallava you were one of them who was there who finally reported it in such a great fashion and fascination, I think I could say indirectly that [NDTV] certainly inspired a huge segment of the society to come forward and say we should undertake this mission. I think it was....there was an assessment, there was a conviction, a courage of conviction and ultimately and we also knew there are scientific problems which should be looked into. I had consulted my colleagues like Professor Narendra Bhandari who gave us a quick idea about what are the problems of lunar exploration and scientific questions which are unanswered and water was identified as one of the principle objectives which the Chandrayaan mission will undertake so this was all set and this was all set with the full assessment from scientific, technological and feasibility point of view.
Q: What are your feelings today as a person?
A: Think I feel so elated because you know that you have from the conception to the end you are able to be a witness to a great event unfolding itself over a ten year period which is extra ordinary. That shows that you can give any kind of thought but there is a system which sustains it, carries it forward and fortifies it, however challenging it is and that is ISRO and I pay tribute to the leadership of ISRO, people like Madhavan Nair and others and also the entire community, the technical community and professional community within the organization and whole host of scientists whether from physical research, laboratory, Tata institute of fundamental research and many places who were convinced that it has got a lot of science behind it. It was an outright scientific mission, even though there were technological challenges.... I had no two opinions it had to be a scientific mission.