Chandrayaan-3 lander, rover set to wake up
India is set to become the first nation in the world to witness the ‘waking up’ after the end of a 2-week long ‘sleep’
New Delhi: India is set to become the first nation in the world to witness the ‘waking up’ of Chandrayaan-3 mission's lander and rover after the end of a two-week long ‘sleep’ due to sunset on the moon, as the sun is set to rise during the early hours of September 22, Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh informed Lok Sabha on Thursday.
"Tomorrow when the nation will be rejoicing the passage of the Women's Reservation Bill, we may also hopefully become the first nation in the world to make our Chandrayaan-3 mission land on the moon's South Pole (which happened last month) and then witness the resumption of navigational activities of both lander Vikram and rover Pragyan after a 14-day slumber (owing to a fortnight-long sunset on the moon)," Singh said while replying to a discussion on Chandrayaan-3 mission's success in Lok Sabha.
In his more than an hour-long reply, the minister, while responding to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor's comment earlier in the day that the BJP creates an impression that all scientific accomplishments occurred only after 2014, referred to the famous photograph of scientists carrying rocket parts on a cycle, said, "That miracle was of pre-2014 days. Unlike in the Nehruvian era when we were devoid of resources, we are now technologically advanced." To another Tharoor's remark that unlike in Parliament, women don't need reservation in scientific fields, Singh said that there are more women scientists in ISRO than ever before and informed that even the Aditya L-1 mission is headed by a woman scientist.
