Water on the Moon emboldens space voyagers
The moon was conquered on 16 July 1969. Later five more successful moon landings were performed, the last one being on 7 December 1972. As everyone knows, all the manned lunar missions were conducted by the USA.
It all started with the aim to beat the Soviets in the space race as they had been playing the leading role from the beginning with their first manned flights in the earth's obit. But later even after six successful landings by the American astronauts on the moon, the whole programme had to be given up, for even the richest and the most technologically advanced nation on earth found it to be too burdensome to bankroll such a space programme for an indefinite period.
According 1969 US dollar, in all, the Apollo series of lunar manned missions cost between 20 and 25.4 billion, which would come to around US$ 145 billion when calculated against the current 2008 worth of the American dollar. However, the 381.7 kg of lunar soil that the manned probes brought home was of great value to the researchers.
But space exploration was not all about reaching the moon. It was also about satisfying one of the great powers' egos. If the goal of sending rockets carrying man and sophisticated scientific instruments into space is to crack the mysteries of the yet unknown celestial objects like the Sun and its planetary family at the outset, then the moon is just our own backyard. In that sense, the journey to the moon or making a landing on its surface is like having a foot in the door of a yet greater mission of voyaging into the interplanetary space.
So, after all the initial curiosities and enthusiasms, there was a lull in the race to the moon, as the Soviets opted out of it. They rather focused on the orbital probes to know about the immediate surroundings of the earth and the moon. Their cosmonauts conducted numerous tests on the endurance of life in the conditions of weightlessness and achieve various physical and technical feats there. Later, the Americans also joined the Soviets in carrying out joint exercises on stations floating in space.
In fact, the moon could be an ideal launching pad for further voyages into the interplanetary space. Unfortunately, considering the conditions existing there both according to theory and after what the astronauts had observed themselves, the moon appeared to be too hostile to life, as it had neither air nor water. And given the formidable cost of landing itself, the very suggestion of creating an artificial condition with water and air supplied from the mother earth and then make onward manned voyages into the solar system sounded too extravagant and imaginary. And it is not only the colossal costs, the sustainability of any future space station on the moon was called into question due to the extremely inhospitable conditions existing there.
But meanwhile, the two pioneers of space exploration, the US and the Soviet Union (now Russia), did not stop sending unmanned missions to the orbits of the different planets in the solar system. Hundreds of such missions had gone into space, some to probe all the planets and their moons. The most coveted destination in the solar system after the moon is the mysterious red planet, Mars.
Depending on the nature of the missions those are termed flybys, orbiters, landers and rovers. The flyby missions sent spacecraft that flew past the planet taking as many pictures as those probes could. Then were the orbiters that explored the surrounding space of the planet globally and for longer times. With the increasing knowledge of interplanetary space, Mars landers including mobile vehicles were also sent to have a feel of the Martian surface and test samples of its soil with the help of remote control devices. There are also on the cards sending of missions like flying airplanes and balloons in the Martian sky; sending probes deeper into the red planet's ground and bringing back soil samples from there and so on.
Of late, another good piece of news has stirred up the passions of the space scientists further. Recent data from very sensitive devices aboard India's lunar probe Chandrayaan-1 has got strong evidence of water in the moon's dust.
The news of water on the moon has further broadened scientists' imagination about future manned voyage deeper into space aiming for planets from a moon-based launching pad. Let us wait with our fingers crossed and see if further experiments prove beyond doubt the verity of the claim that water is really present in the moon's dirt.
Syed Fattahul Alim is a senior journalist.
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