On celebrating Chandrayaan 3’s Moon landing, or that of Apollo
Many readers have asked me this week if I plan on blogging something today for the anniversary of Chandrayaan 3’s Moon landing, which India now celebrates as National Space Day. The answer is the same as what I do for Apollo anniversaries: Nothing.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m thrilled that as more countries explore our cosmic companion (such as South Korea), people globally are now gaining diverse ways, days, and missions to celebration lunar exploration. To that end, Chandrayaan 3 is very important to me personally too because I have watched it launch from Sriharikota, covered its landing from ISRO, interviewed its Associate Project Director for Nature, and delivered a talk on the mission at ESA in Netherlands. But I’m personally just not the kind to buzz on meta events of any sort. Heck, I might even start new years with a call for realizing how insignificant we are on a cosmic scale.
On a more serious and professional note though, with my Moon Monday blog+newsletter, I celebrate and communicate civil lunar exploration efforts by any country every single week. In India’s case, I’ve been extensively covering developments and outcomes from the Chandrayaan program for years now. And I push the need for international collaboration and outreach everywhere I can. My key driving factor across it all is for us to prioritize endurance.
As veteran planetary scientists can attest, rooting for the Moon doesn’t start or stop with a single mission or program. Moon Monday will be here when a NASA Artemis crew lands on polar lunar soil or when increasingly complex Chandrayaans take off or when astronauts drive JAXA’s cool pressurized rover on Luna. But Moon Monday will also be here if Artemis, CLPS, or the crewed Chandrayaan ambitions get pulled from under the rug, just like when NASA’s VIPER rover was canceled.
Of course, one could argue that celebrating meta events and pushing for sustained lunar exploration aren’t mutually exclusive. Even if true, it’s important to remember that our guiding north star be sustained momentum stemming from fundamental reasons to explore our Moon, and not celebratory or nationalistic spikes on social media or worse yet, mixing Moon missions with mythology at schools.
Just as many inspiring staunch lunatics the likes of late Paul Spudis, I’m in this ultimate Moon mission for the long run with conviction, and I love and thank everyone who’s supporting along the way.
To our Moon,
– Jatan