Chandrayaan 3 – soft landing of lander module is successful!
India is now one out of only countries in the world to have landed on the moon and the FIRST COUNTRY to successfully land on the far side of the moon! This is a momentous achievement and 23rd August 2023 is a day to remember.
There is however a segment of people in India and also outside who say that consider more than 50% of India is still poor and India is lacking in basic infrastructure, why is it necessary to have this luxurious extravagance?
Well, here is why I think having a space program makes sense in a lot of ways and why it is an investment that will keep on giving back for decades to come. Is this needed? Absolutely YES!
The Chandrayaan 3 budget is 615 crore rupees or slightly less than 75 million USD. This is not even a blip in our GDP. With 600 crores, just about 24 kms of a six-lane concrete highway can be built in India today. This is less than a day’s work – highways have been added at the rate of roughly 30 kms per day since 2016 . Putting 600-700 crores hasn’t diverted from any necessary infrastructure in my opinion.
What exactly do we get by the moonshot after spending 600+ crores?
1) Software – Indian developers have coded for the space mission and they maintain this code. The technical know-how and the technological advantage that Indian software gains here is tremendous.
- Most of the software used by ISRO critically interacts with the hardware, the deployment state of any software is either directly to PROM or in FPGA – therefore a complete understanding of the hardware is must before even starting the design phase of any algorithm.
- There is no beta version of an application in the organization i.e the functional error that is acceptable is almost ZERO for a mission. The reliability of an algorithm is highly important and shall be tested thoroughly before deploying it into a hardware.
- The simulations are separately done for every algorithm to test its behavior in the system and also right from module level designer testing to system testing in hardware by designer to QA testing are also done to verify and validate all the requirements discussed at the initial phase.
2) Hardware – The material design and the material technology was mostly indigenous.
▪️Tata Elxsi Ltd: Development Of Spacecraft, Avionics And Software.
▪️𝐓𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦: Manufacturing Of Chandrayan 3’s Lander.
▪️𝐋𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐧 & 𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐫𝐨 𝐋𝐭𝐝 Launch Pad And Another Infra For ISRO.
▪️𝐌𝐓𝐀𝐑 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐋𝐭𝐝: Manufacturing Rocket Engines And Core Pumps for ISRO since a long.
▪️𝐁𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭 𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐋𝐭𝐝: Manufacturing chandryan3’s Payloads.
▪️𝐇𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐋𝐭𝐝: Development Of Lander Along with Mechanical Support Equipment.
▪️𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐦 𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐋𝐭𝐝: Design Development And Manufacturing of Electronics System For Space Applications.
▪️Godrej & Boyce 𝐋𝐭𝐝: Critical components like liquid propulsion engines, satellite thrusters and control module components.
The mission also saw smaller and niche players contributing to the project. Ananth Technologies contributed to the launch vehicle and avionics packages. Himson Industrial Ceramic supplied components to sustain extreme temperatures while Sri Venkateswara Aerospace built Vikram’s legs and the rover’s chassis. Midhani provided alloys for the lander’s heat shield and the rover’s wheels and Paras Defence and Space Technologies contributed to the navigation system.
Chandrayaan-3 is a giant leap for Indian Enterprise. All employees of these companies will be proud of their contribution!
Made in India is no longer local quality, of a lower grade than imported and therefore better quality. Made in India is something to be proud of!
This shift should cause a change in thinking in younger generations too. Intelligent and smart people will start seeing a future in India that is different from the past that older generations have experienced. A moonshot ignites minds in a way that very few other things can.
Would we rather use those funds and smart people to do something different? NO! India has no dearth of people or money. Great people can rise in all
those areas where needed and money will flow when there is pride and
optimism.
A moonshot is a generational motivation. It ignites ambition, it makes all those involved – manufacturing, hardware, software, quality control to up their game and bring their best to the table. It brings hope and a positivity and an attitude of aspiring and becoming great.
