Chandrayaan-3 Unlocks Path to Lunar Habitation: Ex-NASA Astronaut
Success of India's Chandrayaan-3 mission is going to be instrumental in knowing about sources of water on the Moon, a vital step towards creating human settlements, said former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino while engaging with students in New Delhi.
Speaking to PM SHRI Kendriya Vidyalaya students, Massimino congratulated Chandrayaan-3 on becoming the first mission to land successfully near the Moon's South Pole on August 23, 2023. The achievement made India the fourth country to have a soft lunar landing, after the USSR (Russia), the United States, and China.
Massimino pointed to the mission's worldwide significance, with its discovery having the potential to offer essential knowledge about the availability and access of water on the Moon, which is crucial to sustaining human presence on the lunar surface for an extended period. "It's not only India's achievement, but of the international space community", he said, praising the difficulty in landing in the unexplored polar region of the Moon.
The former astronaut also shared his thoughts on future space settlements, stating that life on the Moon is more feasible in the near term than Mars, given the relatively closer distance and fewer technological hurdles. “While living on the Moon could become a reality soon, settling on Mars would take longer”, he explained, stressing the need for international collaboration in upcoming space missions.
Referring to the role of technology, Massimino also pointed out the revolutionary effect of artificial intelligence (AI) on space travel. "AI would make space missions efficient, cost-saving, and safe", he added, urging students to study various topics such as soil sciences and marine biology, which would later help in space studies.
Sharing his own experiences, Massimino explained how a film about seven astronauts had motivated him to become a space professional. He captivated students with tales of adjusting to zero gravity, laboring, and even sleeping in space. He also answered questions about living on a space shuttle, such as what food astronauts consume during missions.
A two-time space flight veteran, Massimino served on the fourth and fifth Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions in 2002 and 2009, where he broke a team record for total hours of spacewalking in one mission. He is currently a professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia University and senior advisor for space programs at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.
His words inspired students, giving them a clear vision of the thrilling future of space travel and the possibility of humans living beyond the planet.
