Opinion | Lunar thrill

With India’s latest lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 set to boldly go where no country has gone before, the Moon’s south polar region, it is on course to throw open new possibilities for the world. According to news reports, Isro completed its final de-orbital procedures successfully on Wednesday. As Vikram, its special surface vehicle, prepares to make a soft landing on Saturday, India will have the global scientific community watching. This is a pioneering mission and what it reveals would add to the stock of human knowledge.

As if that was not exciting enough, the possibility of finding water on the Moon would keep our breaths bated. Water’s existence is reckoned to be a possibility in the region to be explored. Traces of it had been detected by the mission’s predecessor, Chandrayaan-1. If material evidence of it is captured, it would be a breakthrough that would fuel the imagination of many a futurist. Among the opportunities available in the future would be space tourism. Our expedition could also reveal secrets of the early solar system. If worthy information is recovered, India could add a new chapter to the cosmic story of our origin.