If you have been following the news recently, India’s Chandrayaan-2 attempted a soft landing for the very first time on Moon’s South pole region. No country in the world including Russia and US managed to land successfully at this site in their first attempt. It would be a great achievement if India manages the landing on it’s maiden attempt in a region where no one has ventured before till now.

While India’s orbiter where 95% of the mission’s experiments would be conducted over the a period of one year, successfully entered the lunar orbit, the lander (with the remaining 5% of the mission’s experiments) lost communication with the ground ops on 09.06.19, just 2.1 kms above the Moon’s surface. As per latest reports from the Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO, (as of 09.09.19), the lander has been found, seems intact and not crashed but is in a tilted position. ISRO is continually making efforts to establish communication with the lander.

Would you term this a successful mission for ISRO and India or a failed mission? Or a partial success?

1. From the perspective of ISRO scientists, the mission may be partial success for now. It would be termed successful once they achieve all their goal with respect to Chandrayaan-2, including the data and experiments they would continue to receive from the orbiter and hopefully, the lander.

2. From my own perspective, the mission has been a GREAT success! Here are my reasons for saying so - This was India’s maiden mission to the South pole of the Moon and if you see the descent trajectory, the lander was following it to the T. It was the last 2.1 km where technical issues happened and yet, it managed to land about 500 m from the intended landing site. It seems intact and might be functional, we would have to wait on ISRO’s next communication around it.

Space is hard, NASA says. And it is harder to reach another planet, much less land on it. Imagine the hard work and scientific calculations and planning that must have gone into this mission that it went as per plan…almost. The margin of error always remains especially in scientific expeditions where you are controlling a machine in space from Earth.

3. The Chandrayaan-2 cost approx. $141 million dollars. It is relatively inexpensive when you compare it with other similar missions. To put things in perspective, many Hollywood movies such as the Avengers series and Interstellar cost more than Chandrayaan-2. ISRO has been becoming an expert at hosting and executing low-cost and frugal missions which is becoming it’s USP in the space market.

4. The night Chandrayaan-2 was to land, many Indians stayed up as late as 2 am to witness this feat. This might have been the first time in a long time that Science united a billion people. This mission has inspired many young minds to take up science and space research. Twitter was full of proud teachers and parents who said how their young ones have been up all night discussing moon orbiter, gravity, pay load and how many have expressed a desire to become ISRO scientists. For a nation obsessed with cricket and bollywood, this is welcome news! [Before anyone jumps to any wrong conclusion, please know that I love cricket and my dose of bollywood masala movies. :D ]

Source: Twitter, Diksha Madhok

Is this not success -igniting a spark for science and technology in young minds?

Similarly, what success means to you may mean differently to someone else. For you, success may be achieving a ‘Distinction’ on your degree completion but for another student, achieving a ‘Pass’ may be a struggle in itself. What a 5% raise may mean for you may be very different for someone else. So, stop judging yourself by society’s standards. Stop comparing yourself with how successful people around you are. This would only make you miserable, weak and depressed. Instead, set your own goals and celebrate them when you achieve them. Become successful for yourself.