Yogesh Kumar, an educator of Uttar Pradesh, is all praise for live streaming of ISRO Moon Mission which highlighted the efforts of Indian scientist community. His views
When I reached my class the next day, I was pleasantly surprised with the discussion going on amongst the children. Not only were the students felt proud about India’s achievement, they were also discussing Chandrayaan-3 vis a vis Chandrayaan 2 mission – as to how the weak legs of the lander of C2 caused the crash. On interacting with them, they not only pointed out the corrections in the latest moon mission but also shared with me the details of the landing and what made it possible!
The children also told me that India is the first country to explore the 40% of the moon that is always in darkness making us the world leader amongst other countries that have only explored the 60% of the brighter side of the moon!
They were also happy with the live streaming of the entire exercise – from visuals of the monitoring team of ISRO to the soft landing. They also told me that in the past, we (students and people) only came to know about the success or the failure of any mission from the newspapers the next day, but this time, it was an entirely different experience. They also suggested to me to put their point to ISRO and the government that whatever it may be, all such advancements and missions should be put forward to the people of the country through live telecasts!
I feel that the telecast not only helped in propagating our scientific advancements to every reachable corner of India but also raised curiosity amongst children about the previously unexplored dimensions of the progress in our field of science.
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Besides the announcement of August 23 to be celebrated as the National Science Day, the children also know that Rover Pragyaan has ramped down from the Lander and has traversed a distance of 8m on the moon already making some significant discoveries about the environment and the salts present there!
As truly emphasised by PM Narendra Modi, the excitement generated by the success of Chandrayaan-3 should be channelized to power scientific temper among youngsters to realise the dream of a developed India by 2047. As teachers and responsible citizens of India, We have to take a pledge to make all efforts to attract the new generation to science as the 21st century is technology driven and only the country which has mastered science and technology will move forward and set new standards.
India has not only emerged with great aplomb on the global science-tech scene as a country to look forward to but also as a reliable partner in technology dissemination. This will further address the need for knowledge-sharing but global challenges could be jointly tackled and resolved in many unexplored spectrums of mutual understanding.
(The narrator is a professor of physics in a private college and has been a faculty member in Kota)
As told to Rajat Rai