A Successful Crash-Landing?
Congratulations to India and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for their recent unmanned mission to the moon, called the Chandrayaan-1. The spacecraft, currently in lunar orbit, is also called Chandrayaan-1.
Artists Impression of Chandrayaan-1
From Chandrayaan-1, the ISRO has launched probes to the moon. An article on CNN reports
India probe successfully crash-lands on moon.
The article describes the landing as “hard” and then states that the probe was traveling at 3,579 mph. Wow, I’m assuming the airbags deployed! To be fair, the probe is known more precisely as the Moon Impact Probe. Impact? Mission Accomplished!
Moon Impact Probe
According to Bangalore Ramachandra Rao Guruprasad of the ISRO
One of the objectives of this probe is to understand the moon for future soft landings
I thought that this was a done deal with the Surveyor program back in 1966-1968. I guess there’s no harm in being doubly sure that a landing at 3,579 mph is too fast.
I think I know why the ISRO sent the Moon Impact Probe into the moon’s surface as they did. I think the ISRO has projected the “12 Rules of the Indian Road” onto their space program. Article X of the 12 Rules states
Nirvana may be obtained through the head-on crash.
Welcome to Nirvana, Chandrayaan, welcome!
November 18th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Most major newspapers and networks in India called this as an event of path breaking accomplishment and covered the headlines for a day or two. I was sort of surprised by the pride the Indian Scientific community took…what I gather is that much of it is a “race” with China since they did a similar experiment an year ago and now India is in an exclusive club of 4 nations that have lunar mission successful.
Most people on the street did not give a damn…some did.. they actually protested against governments wasteful expediture on science that does not help feed hungry mouths. More than a third of population is still below poverty line…I guess that means less than a dollar a day…for them I guess a head on collision does get Nirvana.