In an interview to TOI, Jitendra Singh said, “Chandrayaan-1 was altogether a different mission as compared to all other space missions. This is because when India started its space journey in the early 1960s, then America was already busy with its Apollo manned missions to the Moon. Though the US had landed on the Moon decades ago, they had not found any evidence of water on the Moon in the past.”
Chandrayaan 3 Launch: ISRO Chief’s Overwhelming Joy
He said, “When Chandrayaan-1 found the first concrete evidence of water molecules on the Moon (in 2009), then it started a new chapter in space research. Nasa also showed interest in our Moon mission. Hence, Chandrayaan-3 will dig deeper and continue the research that Chandrayaan-1 left and will try to find more evidence of water that may also give a possibility of setting up a human habitat on the Moon in future.” The minister told TOI, “The reason why we are going to the South Pole where no other country has ventured till now is that we want to explore the unexplored. We have received images of dark (permanently shadowed) craters on the Moon which hint that it could possess water. Doing experimentation after these findings will be easier once we land there. If Chandrayaan-3 finds more evidence of water, which consists of hydrogen and oxygen, then it opens up a lot of scientific opportunities. If hydrogen could be tapped from water, it could be a rich source of clean energy (on the Moon). These are markers of possibilities that could be of relevance for human living on the Moon that we are trying to explore from this mission.”
‘Explore possibilities via space startup ventures’: At the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance Summit in Delhi, space minister Jitendra Singh called upon young scientists and youth of the G20 nations to explore the space possibilities through lucrative startup ventures even in a joint mission mode to herald a new age of space entrepreneurship.
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Mission Chandrayaan-3 on track: Watch the best moments of the launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre