On 23rd August, ISRO successfully transformed what was once considered the harrowing “20 minutes of terror” into a resounding “20 minutes of joy”, and the credit for that goes to the esteemed Dr. V. Narayanan, the Director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Dr. Narayanan played a pivotal role in orchestrating the triumphant soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the lunar surface.
Khul Ke continues its unwavering commitment to stimulating engaging discussions within the realm of social networking apps. Moderator Pallava Bagla had the opportunity to sit down with the man himself in his most recent RoundTable discussion.
Prior to steering the ship towards this remarkable achievement, Dr. Narayanan held the prestigious position of Chairman of the national-level Failure Analysis Committee for Chandrayaan-2. His unwavering dedication to dissecting the mission’s challenges were instrumental in identifying the root causes of its setbacks.
Speaking on the scientific objectives of the lander and rovers, Dr. Narayanan explained, “We had six scientific payloads to this mission…we have found important minerals like manganese, calcium, sulphur, titanium, chromium, oxygen and eight minerals. The lander and rovers are also equipped with a special instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity, which will detect and study lunar quakes. Another payload is Chandra’s surface Thermo-Physical Experiment (ChaSTE), where we basically want to understand the temperature history of the moon’s surface…Another probe called the RAMBHA and Langmuir probe will conduct experiments to study plasma activities on the moon…Another will obtain real-time distance measurements between the moon and the earth to understand the moon’s orbital behaviour better… So, it’s not just about the achievement of the sharp landing we have to celebrate, but all the scientific payloads we’ll be getting out of this mission.”
