Chandrayaan-I mission was a complete success: ISRO chairman
Bangalore: Terming the finding of water on the Lunar surface a
'historic' one, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair on Friday said that the Chandrayaan-I mission was a complete success. Addressing mediapersons here, Nair said: "The
Chandrayaan mission performed wonderfully. Earlier, I said it had completed 95
per cent of its mission objectives. Today, I say it has done 110 per cent." Confirming
the presence of water on the Lunar surface, he said: "All over the world people
are applauding the Chandrayaan's achievement. The discovery of water on the moon
has been acknowledged as a significant discovery. The main aim of the Chandrayaan1
mission has been achieved." On the collection of the data, he said that as the
data is huge so it would take six months to three years before all of it is analysed
and digested. Speaking on the finding of water on the Lunar surface, Nair said
that quantity of water on moon is more than what was expected. He added that the
moon impact probe picked up strong signals of water. "The water is not in form
of sea, lake, not even as a drop. It is embedded in the surface in the minerals
found there. However, the quantity of such molecules is much more than what we
were expecting. It can extracted, but the quantity would be very less," he added.
Commenting on the presence of water on the moon, he said: "We are still wondering
how water is present on the moon. But as per initial assessment, it seems that
it is due to the solar winds and possibly meteors and asteroids that crash onto
the moon surface." However, he added that although there was a presence of water
molecules doesn't mean the presence of life on the moon. On the possibility of
the establishment of a permanent lunar base, he further said that after the discovery
of water, hopes for such a future endeavour have become more realistic. Acknowledging
NASA for collaboration in the discovery, he said: "We truly believe it is a pathbreaking
finding. But this is just the beginning."
