3-D moon atlas will soon be available

A lot of science was brought out and discussed on a cloudy Monday, in the sixth science meeting on the findings of Chandrayaan-1 at the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad. The success story of the moon mission echoed vibrantly in the institute designed by the original dreamer Vikram Sarabhai, who was repeatedly mentioned by scientists in their inaugural address.

Attended by planning commission member K Kasturirangan, former chairman of ISRO G Madhavan Nair, PRL director JN Goswami and SAC director RR Navalgund, the two-day science meeting is one of the several attempts to analyse and make available the "several terabytes" worth of data gathered by the satellite on the mission. A 3-D atlas of the moon will be made available in the next six months.

In addition to the scientific data, Kasturirangan said the project has succeeded in igniting a million minds. "There are very few projects which succeed in doing this. I wish there are a billion minds that get ignited. We need a planetary research society to bring youngsters into the fold of science. Mars is the next target we hope to conquer by 2015, looking for extraterrestrial life," he said.

And if the celebrations are being taken up with aplomb, the scientists do not dither to admit their failures too. Nair candidly admitted that some functions of the mission failed, because of which they have been able to realise 95% of the set objectives of the mission. However, he asserted that one should not be disappointed as what has been achieved is also quite an achievement.

"Travelling 3,000 km into space is commendable, and if the data generated is seen, one will realise that the experiment has been handled very maturely," Dr Nair said.