All Is Not Lost, Chandrayaan-2 Not A Failed Mission: World Media, Space Experts

Sep 7, 2019

BENGALURU: International space experts and media around the world on Saturday called the communication loss with Vikram lander a “partial loss” and said “all is not lost” as the orbiter with key scientific instruments on board is still circling Moon’s orbit.

Former US astronaut and space analyst Jerry M Linenger said, “India was trying to do something very, very difficult. Everything was going as planned as the lander came down. Unfortunately, it never quite made it to the hover point. That would be at an altitude of about 400 metre if it had made it to that point, and even if it had not succeeded beyond that, it would have been helpful because the radar altimeters and lasers could have been tested. This would obviously be very helpful for follow-on missions. Overall, the mission has been very successful.”

Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter has life of 7 years, 95% of mission accomplished: Isro

He said, “The orbiter will continue to downlink very valuable information for the next year. And by all indications, all systems are go on the orbiter. I look forward to watching complete success in the future based upon lessons learned from this bold attempt.”

Writer and managing editor of Nasa Spaceflight Chris G said, “The orbiter is where 95 per cent of the experiments are. The orbiter is safely in lunar orbit and performing its mission. This is not a total failure. Not at all,” Chris G tweeted.

Israel, whose Beresheet lander crashlanded in April this year, too responded positively about the Chandrayaan-2 mission. Israel ambassador Ron Malka tweeted, “Take pride India and have courage. This is a great achievement and it is not the end. Israel is no stranger to the stumbling blocks on the way to a soft landing and we know India will try again and complete the last step. We will see you there. #IndiaOnTheMoon”

Most of the world newspapers did not call India’s mission a total failure.

“All is not lost for the mission”, the online edition of US magazine ‘Wired’ said on Vikram’s “deviation from its expected trajectory”. The New York Times lauded India’s “engineering prowess and decades of space development have combined with its global ambitions.”

‘The Guardian’, in its article titled — India’s moon landing suffers last-minute communications loss, quoted Mathieu Weiss, a representative in India for France’s space agency CNES, as saying, “India is going where probably the future settlements of humans will be in 20 years, in 50 years, 100 years.”

Amid the increasing hostility with Pakistan, its minister for science and technology Fawad Chaudhry only made a sarcastic remark on Vikram lander. “Please sleep. The toy landed in Mumbai instead of landing on the moon,” he tweeted.

American magazine Wired said the Chandrayaan-2 programme was India’s “most ambitious” space mission yet.

“The loss of the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover it was carrying to the lunar surface would be a big blow for India’s space program…but all is not lost for the mission,” it said.

The Washington Post in its headline “India’s first attempt to land on the moon appears to have failed” said the mission had been a source of “immense national pride”.

“Social media erupted in support of the space agency and its scientists despite the setback… The incident could now set back India’s growing space ambitions, seen as a reflection of the aspirations of its young population,” it said.

“One of the successes of India’s space program has been its cost-effectiveness. Chandrayaan-2 cost $141 million, a small fraction of what the United States spent on its historic Apollo moon mission,” the report said.

American network CNN described it “India’s historic landing on moon’s polar surface may have failed”.

“India’s historic attempt to soft land a rover on the moon may have ended in failure moments… The crowd had celebrated every small step during the controlled descent and the moment the landing was expected to take place, silence descended,” it said.

The BBC wrote the mission had made global headlines because it was “so cheap”.

“The budget for Avengers: Endgame, for instance, was more than double at an estimated $356 million. But this isn’t the first time Isro has been hailed for its thrift. Its 2014 Mars mission cost $74 million, a tenth of the budget for the American Maven orbiter,” it said.

French daily Le Monde mentioned the success rate of soft landing on the moon.

It said, “so far, scientists point out, only 45 per cent of missions aimed at alleviating have been successful”.

It started its article with words “A broken dream” and said that the Indian newspapers “were quick to titrate their websites, after announcing the worse scenario that could expect the Indian Space Research Organisation”.

In the early hours of Saturday, Indian space agency Isro’s plan to soft land Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram module on the lunar surface did not go as per script.

The lander lost communication with ground stations during its final descent. Isro officials said, adding that the orbiter of Chandrayaan-2 – second lunar mission – remains healthy and safe.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday asked Isro scientists not to get disheartened by the hurdles in the moon mission Chandrayaan-2 and asserted that there will be a “new dawn and better tomorrow”.

(With agency inputs)

Courtesy: TOI