As the GSLV Mk-III took off from Sriharikota on Monday afternoon with Chandrayaan-II, India’s second moon mission, it was another landmark in mankind’s efforts to study the moon.
Interestingly, India took this major step on the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing by man. And Touch Down Moon, an exhibition that began at the Regional Science Centre (RSC) and Planetarium in Kozhikode on Monday, in memory of the first moon landing, coincided with the launch of Chandrayaan-II.
Though it was Apollo 11 that took Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin to the moon, it is a miniature model of the GSLV Mk-III that makes the centre of attraction (literally) at Touch Down Moon. A simulated lunar surface with Lunar Lander Module and Moon Buggy used by astronauts to move around the moon surface and an 11-hour thoroughfare traversing over the moon surface by an orbiter are the other major attractions, besides a map of the moon spread out on the floor.
It was on July 21, 1969 that Apollo11 landed on the moon with three astronauts on board. The exhibition features detailed panels on various aspects of the first moon journey, starting from the space suit, the food taken to the moon, how it was packed, the particulars of the journey including the path taken and the way back home. The three astrounauts in the first moon mission barely spent two hours on the moon surface while their successors got to spend days there. The message of the then President of the United States of America, prepared to be published in case the astronauts did not make it back, as well as documents of the customs clearance issues to them once they landed back, have been exhibited.
The astronauts were quarantined for three days before being allowed to set foot on earth, in case they had carried with them infectious particles from the moon. A whole history of all the subsequent manned moon missions, facts to bust the various rumours that the moon landing was stage-managed by the USA, have also been displayed.
The cross-section of the moon has been displayed in 3D along with several facts and figures on various features of the moon and the moon mission.
The exhibition will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. till August 25.