It was unfortunate that the lander module Vikram lost communication with ground stations just before the expected smooth moon landing. However, it is a cause for celebration that it has been spotted, a little away from its intended touchdown point. Though space experts feel that it may not be possible to resurrect the lander, India can be proud that the mission’s execution was near-perfect. Scientific endeavours are successful not at the first instance but after a series of trials and errors (“Chandrayaan-2 orbiter spots lander on moon”, Sept. 9).
A. Jainulabdeen,
Chennai
That the lander Vikram shut off its communications after coming tantalisingly close to keeping its rendezvous with the designated lunar surface must have been frustrating for the ISRO’s Chandrayyan-2 team, but it can take heart from the fact that space pioneers like the U.S. and Russia have had their share of setbacks before they learned to launch accident-proof lunar missions. Moonshots have hidden ‘unknown unknowns’ — unanticipated errors — that unravel unexpectedly and that too at the most inopportune moments.
Unlike the NASA’s scientists and technicians who were under pressure to beat the erstwhile Soviet Union in the race to reach the moon, the ISRO’s scientists are only competing against their self-drawn benchmarks of excellence. With the nation rallying behind it, the ISRO must shed complacency and raise the bar of competence. With the Prime Minister solidly backing it, the space agency could perhaps re-examine the strategy of pursuing cost-effectiveness as a non-negotiable virtue.
V.N. Mukundarajan,
Thiruvananthapuram