Mumbai: ‘The moon will get colonised’

Many kilometres away from the Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO in Bengaluru young hearts beat excitedly at the prospect of the ticking clock with just a few hours to go for Chandrayaan3 moon missionClock ticksThe response for Nehru Science Centrersquos Worli make a Chandrayaan3 paper model workshop underway at the Centrersquos hall above the auditorium was robust Students were busy crafting paper models of Chandrayaan3 on Wednesday afternoon They were gungho before the descent shouting ldquoyes yes of courserdquo when asked if they thought there would be a successful landingThe excitement built up and it was house full at the Centrersquos auditorium much before time as Professor Mayank N Vahia former scientist Tata Institute of Fundamental Research TIFR Mumbai arrived for an interactive session a little before the Chandrayaan3 livesteamingProfessor Vahia struck a chord with the audience with his easy going style The expert started off with some informal interaction asking his audience for some initial questions since he was a little early for the formal presentationTo a question about why it was important for a nation to go to the moon Vahia said ldquoThere are a number of factors One is prestige The other is the challenge and then there is the fact that the earth is running out of resources At some stage the moon is going to get colonised It will be available for mining for space travelhellip so it is important to have gone thererdquoTo a question from a youngster in the audience about why it is so difficult to land on the moon Vahia had a relatable analogy ldquoit is easier to drive in Mumbai than drive in the Himalayas It is tough because the surface is very rough and the lander needs to be very careful to land between the mountains there are many mountains many hazards it is perilousrdquoThe professor stressed that the most precious resource water is seen near the South Pole of the moon ldquoThat is the prime reason why we are going to the moon Water is critical to everything to life itself That is why there is a mad rush to be near the South Pole of the moonrdquoInterest peaksProfessor Vahia then formally introduced himself to cheers and explained the moon mission with the help of a slide show After stating that he had worked at the TIFR for 40 years and his expertise was making telescopes he said in his talk while waiting for the livestreaming of the Chandrayaan 3 mission that ldquothe next mission to the moon is going to be an IndoJapanese collaboration India needs to develop rockets that can take a larger payloadrdquoThrough the help of a slide Vahia explained the timeline of moon missions stating ldquoThere was a drop in the middle but again from 2000 onwards we see moon missions picking up now we see a burst of interestrdquoJ Worner former director general European Space Agency had stated that he had an intention ldquoto build a permanent base station on the moon An open station for different member states for different states around the globerdquo He liked to call that vision a ldquomoon villagerdquoVahia added that ldquothere is definitely a desire to set up rocket manufacturing units on the moon sending these on missions to different planetshelliprdquo By then the livestreaming of the descent had started in the auditorium and the expert too became the audience and watched A restless auditorium burst into applause at different junctures as commentators spoke about the lander getting closer to the surfaceTwo children stood up holding the tricolour all of a sudden as cameras clicked wildly As the lander got even closer with the altitude dropping shouts of lsquoBharat Mata ki Jairsquo reverberated And then it was all drowned out in Vande Mataram and thunderous applause as the lander touched down People started congratulating each other and fists pumped through the air Exiting the Centre one could hear lsquodholrsquo in the airA cabbie saw triumphant crowds pour out from the Centre and asked in Hindi ldquoHo gaya Pahunch gaye chaand pe Have we reached the moon while another cabbie exclaimed next to him ldquoYes yes hear the dhol looks like Anyway what difference to us We have to drive here only maybe our grandchildren will drive on the moon one dayrdquo he laughed2000Year when moon missions began picking up