Ok so here is my Chandrayaan 3 post
First of all: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Second: HOLY FUCKING HELL. WE FUCKING DID IT!!!!!!!
Third: my story/experience
I remember, on the 14 July my school kept us back a little late for the launch of Chandrayaan 3. (Background on my class, many ppl in it are misogynistic, homophobic, hindu nationalists and highly conservative and me being the liberal atheist bisexual feminist I am, have many debates with them). So we were seated at our desks and the live stream of the launch is playing on the screen. Once the countdown started everyone went quiet (a big feat) and paid rapt attention to the screen. At the 10 second countdown, we all started counting down along with the timer. And when the countdown was at 0 and the rocket launched, the whole school screamed in joy and happiness. And when the launch was deemed successful, many of us started crying and hugging each other.
For a moment, all conservatives and liberals, all misogynists and feminists and all homophobic and allies, hindu nationalists and atheists, let their beliefs and hate to be forgotten and embraced each other as Indians.
Time Skip to landing day
I was studying for my Physics Unit Test (ironic Ik) while watching the livestream. While I wasn't giving 100% of my attention to the livestream, I stopped studying when it was at 100m distance. The emotions that overtook me were something completely different. These emotions weren't for myself they were for every scientist, physical labourer, homemaker, cook, janitor, chai wala who helped this mission reach a success.
As soon as the distance closed to about 20m, I was strangely calm, I somehow knew that this would be a success. And when it landed, I burst out laughing and crying, tears were dripping down my chin as screeches of joy were being ripped out of my throat.
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Landing on Mars
Following the excitement over ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 journey, I wrote a short story in two parts for Deccan Herald’s School Edition on Indian astronauts journey to Mars.
Landing on Mars
Janaki Murali
Part 1
1 a.m.
‘Earth calling Manas. Earth calling Priya.’
‘Nothing? Call again.’
‘Earth calling Manas. Earth calling Priya.’
The message played out loud, echoing around the large room.
But there was no answer.
‘Keep calling until you get a reply,’ said the director of Mission Control, as he moved from one scientist to the other, monitoring the Mars mission.
‘What’s happening? Do you have any signal?’
‘No Sir, the space ship went silent just before landing.”
There was palpable tension in the Mission Control Room in Bengaluru. Everyone was glued to their screens. Only a few moments before, they had all applauded, when the descent to Mars was going as per plan. But a few seconds before landing, the space ship had gone silent.
It was nearly 2 am, almost an hour after they lost communication with the astronauts and they were still clueless as to what had happened to them.
The entire room was silent as they waited for some signal, any signal from the spaceship or of the lander. Nobody wanted to articulate what everyone was thinking. Had the lander crashed on the red planet, killing both the astronauts? The nation was watching live on news channels and the rest of the world was watching via live streaming on the internet.
Beyond the Mission Control Room, sat some 50 students who had been picked from Schools across India to witness the Mars landing. The Prime Minister was there, sitting on a sofa along with other senior scientists, waiting and watching. Beside him on another sofa, sat the families of the two astronauts, holding hands. They tried not to show their anxiety, trying to keep calm, but the lines of strain appeared on their faces.
Everyone around the world, watched with bated breath, as the scientists kept calling out to the astronauts, but there was no answer.
***
‘Captain, we have lost communication with earth,’ said Priya, as she reached over her head to crank a lever.
‘Try again, I can see the red planet, we are only seconds away from landing.’
‘No, nothing, they must be thinking, we crashed.’
‘But we didn’t. Or we haven’t yet.’
Their lander had separated from the Orbiter around Mars as scheduled and they had been in communication with the Mission Control Room until then. They had even heard the applause coming from Bengaluru. Yet, in the space of a few seconds they had lost all communication.
‘I am unable to get Mission Control at Bengaluru. I tried even the Nasa control room, but nothing. I tried all space stations across the world, with no luck. We are on our own captain, even the orbiter has moved away,’ said Priya.
‘Not to worry. We will follow all the steps like we have been trained. I am sure we’ll be able to establish communication with earth very soon,’ said Manas.
‘Okay Captain, I’ll keep trying.’
‘Meanwhile, let’s get ready to land.’
‘Yes, captain.’
‘Check space suits, are oxygen tanks in place and working.’
‘Yes captain.’
Manas ran through the whole check list of things they had been taught to do before landing. As he read out the list, Priya cross checked if they were in order.
For precious seconds before their spacecraft went into the gravitational pull of the red planet, the two astronauts concentrated on doing everything right. So much so, they didn’t realise the space around them had changed. It was subtle at first, then it was swift.
‘Oh my god, what’s happening?’ asked Priya as she saw it first.
‘What?’ said Manas.
Everything turned dark and then bright, then dark and bright again. Then there was a burst of light, much like Diwali firecrackers, a spurt of brightly coloured twinkling stars. It was like they were hurtling through a kaleidoscope. There was a screeching sound on their radio. It seemed as though their communication channel was open once again.
‘Hello, is that Mission Control? This is Priya, are we glad to reach you. We’re hurtling through some kind of tunnel. It’s so beautiful outside. Like Diwali firecrackers in the sky.’
***
‘They are safe, they are safe,’ one of the scientists yelled. She was the first one to hear Priya’s message.
A cheer went around the Mission Control Room. The students stood up and clapped. Someone went to tell the Prime Minister and the families the good news. He too stood up and clapped.
Across all the TV news channels the message was emblazoned as breaking news. ‘Communication established with the astronauts. They’re safe.’
Then everyone heard a huge thud and a crashing sound and then was silence again.
A huge gasp went around the Mission Control Room.
‘What happened?’ asked the Mission Control Director.
Nobody said anything. Nobody wanted to say it. But the strain was visible on everyone’s faces.
‘Wait, that’s not Mars, they landed on,’ said a scientist. ‘They’ve veered off course.’
‘When we lost communication with them, they were only moments from landing. But it’s been an hour since then, before we re-established contact with them,’ said another scientist.
‘They told us they were hurtling through some kind of tunnel and from all that the world has learnt about Mars, they nowhere near Mars,’ said yet another scientist.’
‘So, where are our young astronauts?’ asked the Mission Control Director.
(To be continued)
Landing on Mars
Janaki Murali
Part 2
3 a.m.
The neon lights burned bright, the screens flickered, the radar beeped.
In the Mission Control Room in Bengaluru, everyone held their breath as they waited for communication to be re-established with the young astronauts.
The Prime Minister had been led away into an ante-room. The families of the two astronauts had been led away too. The TV cameras continued to pan the expressions on each scientist’s face. The school children in the next room watched with their hands in their mouths. Across India and the world, nobody had gone to sleep, as viewers watched the live telecast on TV screens and streaming channels on the internet.
It was a tense hour or so, since they had lost communication.
***
Priya unstrapped herself from her upside-down position from the toppled lander. She checked to see if her captain was alright, and then she saw his thumbs up sign. ‘Thank god, we are both safe.’
‘But the lander has toppled. It’s surely damaged,’ said Manas. ‘Oh my god, what is that? Is that a Martian?’
Someone or something was peering into the glass window of their spacecraft. The object was like two green balls tied together. Its eyes were large and it had a small dot for a nose and a slash for a mouth and small hands and thin, long legs and leaf like extensions on its limbs. The creature looked like it was standing on stilts.
‘Are they really leaves on its arms? Oh no, there are more of them, they are coming out of rocks and…and burrows from the surface. What if they’re hostile?’ said Priya.
Normally if everything had gone according to Plan A, Manas would have stepped out in the Rover and explored the planet, while Priya manned the craft. But if they were accosted by hostile life, they were to go into Plan B and take off immediately back to the mother spacecraft. But now they were trapped, as they did not know how badly damaged their craft was.
Manas and Priya watched as the creatures surrounded the lander and began banging on it. They were gesturing to them. It seemed to be some kind of code message.
‘I am going to see if I can repair the spacecraft, you are the communications expert, try to fathom what they’re saying,’ said Manas, as he unstrapped himself from his seat and went to check all the control panels.
The parachute which was to open to soften their landing, had not opened. The lander’s solar panels were not open and soon they would lose power. The lander was sitting belly up, its legs hadn’t opened either.
While Manas was finding out all this, Priya was going through all the code languages she had learnt in her training. She kept trying out various combinations and permutations to see if she could understand what the creatures were saying. The creatures kept sending the same message again and again, as they continued to bang on the lander. Some of them were pushing it and the lander began titling dangerously.
Suddenly, the microphone crackled and they heard scientists from the Mission Control Room, ‘Are you there, Manas, Priya, are you all right?’
‘Yes, yes, we are fine, but the lander is damaged, we landed belly up. We found life on Mars. We are surrounded by several odd creatures. With leaf like arms and legs. They’re banging away on the lander and pushing it. They seem to be repeating a message again and again,’ Priya said into the microphone. ‘We can’t set in motion Plan B, we are trapped. Manas will update you on the damage to our craft.’
Manas took another microphone and updated the scientists in the Mission Control Room on the damages to the lander.
In the Mission Control Room, scientists worked remotely and feverishly to fix the damaged lander. They kept giving instructions to Manas which he followed.
Meanwhile, communication experts worked with Priya to try to decipher what the creatures were saying.
‘We are from Earth. We have come in friendship. We come in peace,’ Priya kept saying in different code languages to the creatures outside, but they didn’t respond, except to keep sending the same message again and again. They kept pushing the lander until it tilted again and miraculously righted itself.
‘Those creatures are not Martians. According to our calculations, you veered off course and the tunnel you went through can’t have been near Mars,’ said a scientist to the astronauts. ‘From the pictures you sent us, we think those creatures could be some form of plant life. Don’t attempt to open the hatch or try to touch them. They don’t look very friendly.’
The world watched as the scientists in the Mission control room worked with the astronauts to get the lander working again. The solar panels opened and the legs righted itself.
Suddenly, with a whirring sound, the lander took off from the surface of the strange planet. The blob like green creatures screeched and gestured wildly, as they dispersed helter-skelter and went back to their burrows or into the rocks.
The strange planet was behind them soon. The lander docked with the mother spaceship.
‘Phew that was a close call,’ said Manas, echoing what everyone felt in the Mission Control Room. ‘We are safe now.’
Everyone in the control room cheered and clapped.
‘You can now call back the families of the astronauts and the Prime Minister back into the control room,’ said the Mission Director. ‘But what planet was that and what were they saying?’
‘Sir, we have to analyse our data for that, but it seems as though our young Indian astronauts found a new planet. As for what they were saying, it sounded like, Namaste India,’ said a grinning young scientist.
(Concluded)
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