ISRO’s Moon mission presents India a chance to reassess its space priorities | The Indian Express

ISRO’s Moon mission presents India a chance to reassess its space priorities | The Indian Express

Written by Ajey Lele |Updated: September 11, 2019 9:27:24 am

Ajay Lele, a research fellow at IDSA, Delhi, is author of 'Mission Mars: India’s Quest for the Red Planet’

ISRO’s Moon mission presents India a chance to reassess its space priorities

Going to the Moon and Mars is important for multiple reasons, including the quest for minerals and energy security. India should avoid getting swayed by rhetoric such as the “Space Race”.

Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) plan to soft-land Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram on the moon did not go as per the script, early Saturday morning as it lost communication contact.  (PTI Photo) (video grab)

More than 48 hours have passed by now and news about the health of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Vikram lander is not very good. The lander appears to have made a hard-landing because of which, possibly, ISRO is not able to establish any contact. Still, ISRO has not given up and they propose to keep on trying for 11 to 12 days — when sunlight would be available on the Moon’s surface, providing energy for the lander.