New Delhi: Union Minister of State (MoS) Incharge Space Jitendra Singh Wednesday hailed ‘India on moon’.
A statement of Singh issued here said that after the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan3 on the surface of Moon in the South Pole area, Singh who is also the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science and Technology and MoS PMO, Personnel, Public grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, said, “Hail India on Moon! Hail ISRO!”
Simultaneously, in a tweet, which exactly coincided with the precise moment of the landing of Chandrayaan-3, Singh said, “While others fantasize Moon, we have felt the Moon. While others are stuck in the flight of dreams, #Chandrayaan3 has actualised the dream. Tricolour flies high in lunar skies affirming India’s resolve, as articulated by PM @narendramodi, ‘Sky is not the limit.’”
In a brief statement to the media, Singh complimented ISRO Chairman S Somanath, Mission Director Mohan Kumar, and the entire ISRO team for having placed India’s national pride on the moon in the virgin terrain of the South Pole area, not accessed by any other space mission so far.
He said that it was difficult for common citizens to understand how much consistent labour, hard work, commitment, and passion have been put in while working day and night for months and years together to ensure meticulous planning and minutest details for the success of the mission.
Singh said that after Wednesday's successful feat, India had reaffirmed its position as a world's frontline leading nation in the space sector.
He gave credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for enabling India’s space scientists to vindicate the dream of their founding father Vikram Sarabhai by "unlocking" India’s space sector and providing a milieu in which India’s huge potential and talent could find an outlet and prove itself to the rest of the world.
Singh said that the Vikram had landed in a hazard-free location with the help of its algorithm and instruments and the tilt to the Lander was very small as measured by the inclinometers onboard.
“While the cameras onboard the Vikram have beamed the pictures of the moon and confirmed the touchdown, the confirmation is available from other other sensors as well,” he said.
Narrating the further sequence of activities from this moment onwards, Singh said that the experiments onboard Vikram and Pragyan would be happening on all days and as much data would be collected from all instruments until the Moon’s Day lasts for the next 14 days.
He said that on the Lander the instruments in operation include CHASTE (Chandra’s Surface Thermo-Physical Experiment) to carry out the measurements of thermal properties of the lunar surface near the polar region, LRA (Laser Retroreflector Array), RAMBHA-LP- a Langmuir Probe to measure surface plasma density, a laser reflector mounted on the corner of the Vikram for accurate positioning measurement of Lander on the Lunar surface by future orbiters, ILSA - Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity to measure seismicity around the landing site and to understand the structure of the lunar crust and mantle, LIBS- Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy to determine the elemental composition (Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca,Ti, Fe) of Lunar soil and rocks around the lunar landing site, APXS - Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer to measure the chemical composition and mineralogical composition to further enhance our understanding of Lunar-surface and SHAPE - Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth to study the spectro-polarimetric signatures of the habitable planet Earth in the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength range (1 – 1.7 µm).
Singh said that at the end of next 14 days followed by night and extreme cold conditions when the day breaks again, solar power generation for Vikram and Pragayaan was expected to start again.
“The orbiter is designed to withstand long periods of life,” he said.
