A day after the ISRO successfully conducted a static test of its largest “solid booster” on Sunday, it was host to the book launch of “Mission Moon - Exploring the Moon with Chandrayaan l” by SK Das, an Honorary Advisor to ISRO. It has been published by Puffin-Penguin and targeted at being simple enough for young people as well as detailed enough to interest more advanced readers. The book was unveiled at the ISRO headquarters, Antariksh Bhavan in the presence of Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman, ISRO, along with Prof. U.R. Rao, the Chariman of ISRO between 1983-1994 Dr. K. Kasturirangan, Member, (Science), Planning Commission and of course the “Moonman” Dr. G. Madhavan Nair as christened by SK Das. About the book, Prof UR Rao said good-humoredly, “this is an insiders view of the mission and its difficult to keep the bias out but this book has it all the aspects of an exciting novel starting from mythology with Rahu & ketu to the latest in technology and has also tried to clear up doubts on whether the moon is male or female.” Prof UR Rao’s remarks were followed by Member of Planning Commission of Science Dr. K Kasturirangan who has headed the ISRO until 2003, and has also been one of the key members behind the launch of Chandrayaan l with Dr. Madhavan Nair, who together saw this dream of sending India to the moon. Prof. K Kasturirangan spoke of the Chandrayaan and what it had achieved for India , “ 300 crores was spent on sending the Chandrayaan to the moon; what it has also done is touched a million minds and acted as the step towards a major leap.. We are not apologetic about the Moon Mission, because it has ignited minds, my congratulations to Madhavan Nair.” As he spoke of the mission having the enough g-force to inspire people, he also mentioned, “ We are now attempting to involve people from different fields, scientists, doctors, psychologists, even accountants to be part of the future space/ lunar missions. We have hardly sampled a fraction of the universe.”For Further: mybangalore.com/article/0110/the-moon-mission-at-isro.html
