Amidst all the doom and gloom of the so called fizzle of the India's thermonuclear detonation in 1998, here comes some good piece of news.
Most of the media in India only seem to be highlighting the fact that the moon mission got over in 10 months instead of 24 months.
Here are few heart warming facts as reported by BBC
1. First, the spacecraft designed and built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) survived huge odds and successfully reached the Moon's orbit. This in itself was a big achievement since neither Russia nor America succeeded in their maiden attempts; and there were several failures even before they got anywhere near the Moon.
2. No nation to date had succeeded in both a lunar orbiter and an impactor at the first attempt.
3. It was also a brave global geo-political statement since the probe that crash-landed on the Moon also permanently placed India's flag on the lunar surface. This is hugely significant because, if ever the Moon's resources are to be divided, India's rightful share can be claimed having achieved what others have not been able to do.
4. The spacecraft carried 11 different sophisticated instruments, one of the largest suites of experiments ever carried to the Moon.
5. "Never seen before images of the permanently shadowed craters of the Moon have been captured," says Paul D Spudis, of the Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, US, and principal investigator of the payload sent to search for water. "The new radar images are not only visually arresting, but they will be extremely useful in unravelling the complex geological history of the Moon as a whole," he says.
Do read this article - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8230230.stm
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