The sky is not the limit, it seems, when it comes to Indian aspirations.
Having secured it place in the sun, India now, wants the moon. On Oct 22nd amid a lot of excitement, the nation made its first major move towards that goal as it successfully sent off its unmanned spacecraft to the moon, becoming only the sixth nation in the world to have done so. And, if all goes according to plan, on the 11th of November India will become the fourth nation, after the U.S., Russia and Japan, to drop its flag on the satellite.
The primary aim, amongst others, of the orbiter, called Chandrayaan-1 - "chand" meaning moon and "yaan" meaning vehicle, in Sanskrit - is to map the moon's surface. The mission, as outlned by the Indian Space Research organization, ISRO is to prepare a three-dimensional atlas of both near and far side of the moon. This is what, claim the scientists at ISRO, differentiates Chandrayaan-1 from previous missions by other nations: special instruments aboard this spacecraft will provide high-resolution, detailed maps of the moon's surface, including the far-off areas, which have not been studied so far. This information, they hope would help understand whether the moon was ever a part of the Earth, or was an alien body.
Launched on a two-year mission, Chandrayaan-1 is carrying two instruments from the America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) which will look for ice deposits as well map the far-off regions of the lunar surface. This collaboration, of sorts, between India and the U.S. is seen as yet another sign of the growing friendship amongst the two nations (the other and more significant one, of course, being the recent nuclear deal). And, in fact, President-elect Barack Obama recently observed, while remarking about the Indian mission, that the American space program must get its act together fast if it wished to maintain its lead in the world of space, science and technology.
This mission, however, is only the first step for India's outer space ambitions.
ISRO Chairman Madhavan Nair said that the agency is already looking into sending manned missions into space, for which Chandrayaan will actually help pave the way. The project, which will cost billions, is still sometime away, but Mr. Nair is very optimistic and hopes that this dream would be realized by 2015.
It does not seem a dream too far, for, in the recent years, nothing seems beyond reach for India. The country has long recognized the importance of space research technology and has many accomplishments to its credit, of launching satellites, and other space vehicles. With the successful launch of Chandrayaan, there is more reason to believe that it will succeed in its interstellar ambitions.