Mission of H's and O's

“Chandrayaan Mission a complete success” – ISRO at last have had an opportunity to boast on their hard work and acumen, in the field of science and become cynosure for all eyes in this world. When most smart Indian brains are lend to NASA, some back in ISRO today proved that they are not rusty either. It is a historic moment for India with the help of American Instrument; and an orgranisation like ISRO thoroughly deserves this recognition. Once aspired to work in ISRO, if pursued successfully i would have felt hundred times jubilant today. Following this huge breakthrough, there was a discussion in Orkut community highlighting the cost such missions demand. It further went on to say “the finance used in such missions are a waste and need to be channelled to improve the life of the mediocre living in the country”. When my left eye evoked acid on the insensibility and failing to appreciate a landmark achievement, my right eye was hit by the chord of reality it struck with. 

Incandescent memories of those days surfaced, where in late eighties and early nineties when I was still schooling. My parents rented a place just outside the city limits nearby my school and dad’s office. Water Scarcity was at its prime form in southern parts of India then and the dry well in home compound was our voluble witness. Every night between 8 and 10 p.m. the water pump at the end of the street, 5 minutes away from our home, used to give boon of corporation water. All 50+ families in that street depend on those coveted 2 hours to push the next 22 hours of our lives with H2O. We would try filling almost all big vessel containers inside our home with huge thirst, within this span hitting multiple trips to the end of the road returning with PRECIOUS water filled buckets. Well! Those were simple days. After circa 20 years when I visited the town few months ago, I saw lots changed. New roads, mobile maniac, web world wide and better water access facilities – still not the best though. As lovely as it sounds, still people below poverty dwell in streets. Water scarcity is flooded everywhere not only in India but also in the rest of the world. The million dollar question now is should these problems stop a country from making scientific progress and making her mark in history? NO!!!

Current exponential explosion in technology is achieved after spending many billions and trillions of dollars all over the world towards scientific innovations. The good news is, in theory, a portion of the currency earned by some millionaires and billionaires are reaching poor and needy through charity organisations. 

Coming back to where we started, there is a now a section of perplexed scientific community raking their brains on how water got to the surface of moon. ISRO with bolstered confidence believes this as the naughtiness of water possessed asteroids and meteors crashing onto the moon. Hey, since 1969 there were numerous missions to moon from our planet and who knows how many of those guys spilled some H’s and O’s in those aeonian visits contaminating the flawless Moon?

The irony here is some people believe that it may not actually be water on moon’s surface. From Rain water harvesting we have rapidly moved to a topic called Moon water harvesting even before confirming what we found is water (H2O) or hydroxyl (OH). It is believed that the so-called water particles on moon can be harvested for future Mars missions. Chandrayaan II is getting equipped with Russian Rover to dig lunar soil.
 

It is time for me to sign off with adage “Big bad time for Moon has just begun”.

Copyright © Sivi 02-Oct-2009