A New Realm of Life - Space

-- Reema Jafar, 8, ICSK Amman

Sunday, January 14, 2024

Space is one of the most mysterious and unexplored part of this never ending universe. Exploring space is like exploring a black hole for the first time. You are clueless as to what will happen, since the place is so unknown. If you go to an average man and ask about space, he may even have a doubt of being whisked away into a completely different realm. So, it definitely takes some nerve to try something that no one has ever dared to yet (because there must be some reason no one’s trying). As the saying goes, “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyways.” Few are truly curious about space, and fewer are curious enough to explore and risk it. India is one of those countries to saddle up despite all the dangers.

Today, India’s national space agency, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is the 6th largest space agency in the world. It has undertaken several missions in which they have been successful in most of them. ISRO, previously known as Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) was founded by Dr. Vikram Sarabhai and then further promoted by our beloved former president APJ Abdul Kalam. Initially it was under the Department of Atomic Energy, but soon it grew and India set up a different department, called Department of Space. ISRO is also one of the four government agencies in the world to have soft landing capabilities in their space missions.

The Moon has been one of the primary focuses of space missions in the past, and exploration on the Moon is still ongoing. Do you know why we are exploring moon to this extend? Moon is the closest celestial body to Earth. Therefore, in the early space missions, it was easy to explore moon. In addition, scientists also expected to find life on the moon. However, after several missions and experiments, they realized that there was almost no chance to find so. But today, after several missions, the major space agencies of the world also realized that it could be a potential site to set up temporary space stations to launch missions to other celestial bodies to explore the space further. India too has launched a total of three missions to the Moon – Chandrayan 1, 2 and 3. The most recent mission, Chandrayan 3, made India the 1st country to land near the Lunar South Pole – one of the most unexplored parts of moon.
Another potential celestial body which has similar characteristics with Earth is Mars. Due to which scientists had been curious about Mars. Therefore, this planet has long been explored for signs of life. ISRO has also launched the Mars Orbiter Mission also known as Mangalyaan, it not only succeeded on it’s first try, but India also became the 4th country to explore Mars.

Although, results of life exploration are still not found any planets other than earth, scientists maybe successful in the coming years. We search for aliens in our missions. I would imagine that aliens (if there are any) are probably searching for us as well! Till they find us or we find them, both of us (Aliens and humans) are pleased temporarily that we are the only living beings up to date.

In the modern world, although multiple attempts (accompanied with success) have been made to explore the outer space as well as the universe, very limited attempt has been made to explore the Sun. Despite the advanced technologies, the characteristics of the sun such as it’s heat has been an unavoidable obstacle. NASA’s recently launched Parker Solar Probe made history by touching the sun for the first time (touching the sun, imagine!). India is one of the other countries to take up this challenge and put all they have into it. As a famous quote says, “A dream doesn’t become a reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.” This is where the Aditya L1 mission comes in, it is a spacecraft for studying the solar atmosphere. It was successfully launched on 2nd April 2023, and reached it’s orbit successfully.

ISRO was launched with the aim of doing research in space and technology. But today, it has accomplished more than what it has aimed. It became one of the largest space agencies in the world. Apart from encouraging us to explore more about outer space, it also inspires us to try and reach our goal, because if you really want to, no one can stop you. All this truly mounts up to the saying “If you don’t want to do it, no one can help you; if you really want to do it, no one can stop you”.

Reema Jafar, 8, ICSK Amman