{"id":242757,"date":"2023-09-18T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T11:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=242757"},"modified":"2023-09-18T08:39:23","modified_gmt":"2023-09-18T07:39:23","slug":"landing-on-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/09\/landing-on-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Landing on the Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

India has sent a Moon Lander to land on the moon on 22 August. What is so special about this feat is that it calls for delicate manoeuvring by the ISRO<\/em> (Indian Space Research Organisation) scientists on the Lander so that it drops gently on the moon at the desired location without breaking up. The Lander is named Chandrayaan – 3. The name Chandrayaan\u00a0\u00a0indicates the yaan (spacecraft) of the Moon (Chandra) \u2014 the number indicates the third craft that has been commissioned for landing.<\/p>\n

The landing is a very delicate affair. Sending the\u00a0\u00a0Moon module towards the moon is relatively a straight forward mission, but landing on the Moon is a delicate and difficult scientific task. For landing, the Chandrayaan first circles around the Moon and gradually its speed is reduced and its orbit also reduced by scientists who are tracking its path. When its speed is slowed down and a suitable spot on the Moon is identified by scientists, the scientists will aim at landing of the spacecraft after two more days\u00a0\u00a0\u2014 on 23 August.<\/p>\n

It may be mentioned that the recent Russian attempt for its craft\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Luna 25<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0to land softly on the Mono has failed \u2014 its craft crashed after it hit the moon\u2019s surface as reported on August 21 by its agency\u00a0Roskosmos<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0However Russia was the first country to have sent its craft Luna 2 to the Moon in September 1959.<\/p>\n

USA has also attempted to land on the Moon in July 1969. Its Apollo 11 mission was successful but it had crewmen sitting on the craft.\u00a0\u00a0Its soft landing subsequently, without any crew sitting on the craft was successful as it landed on the near side of the Moon . China has also been successful in soft landing on its far side.<\/p>\n

Japan is another country that had a space mission\u00a0\u00a0on the Moon \u2014\u00a0Hiten<\/em>, for landing on the Moon in 1993 but it was not a soft landing. The craft crashed after hitting the moon\u2019s surface. India had also landed on the Moon earlier in 2008 but this was not a controlled soft landing. Even when a craft crashes on the Moon, it sends useful photographs about the Moon\u2019s surface\u00a0\u00a0and other important information that is utilised by subsequent attempts at landing.<\/p>\n

Scientific organisations such as ISRO<\/em> in India and similar organisations in other countries keep on exploring the Moon\u00a0\u00a0for not only scientific purposes but also to satisfy the poetic non-scientific desires of people. Several poets have written poems to talk about the moon and described its beauty and radiance, especially on a dark night. When it is totally dark in some regions like forests or remote regions, a poem on the beauty of the moon is welcome .<\/p>\n

The moon is not just a beautiful object in space, it provides light and peace for the millions of people on the Earth especially as it continues to display its charm from a narrow crescent shape to the beauty of full Moon that is called Poornima (full moon, in Hindi).<\/p>\n

Sometimes, children who act independently and don\u2019t follow their parents\u2019 instructions are warned that if they don\u2019t do what their parents ask them to, the Moon will become angry and not radiate light and charm. Also a newly married husband will\u00a0\u00a0occasionally complement his wife\u2019s beauty by comparing it with the beauty and charm of a full moon.<\/p>\n

Moon, Oh beautiful Moon
\nShow your beauty and charm
\nMake my wife as beautiful as you are
\nAnd I will honour you with rose petals<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Dr Ravi P Bhatia is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/em><\/a>, an<\/em> educationist, Gandhian scholar and peace researcher. Retired professor, Delhi University. His new book, <\/em>A Garland of Ideas\u2014Gandhian, Religious, Educational, Environmental was published recently in Delhi.<\/em> ravipbhatia@gmail.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India has sent a Moon Lander to land on the moon on 22 August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":166069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[939,759,1114,373,304,1157],"class_list":["post-242757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-cosmology","tag-india","tag-moonlanding","tag-news","tag-science","tag-space-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242757"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242760,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242757\/revisions\/242760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}