NASA Encourages ISRO To Attempt Again After Chandrayaan-2 Failure

Space exploration has achieved numerous milestones over the decades. From single-use spaceships to reusable rockets, from robotic landers to manned missions, humans have been unraveling the mysteries of space. Yet, failures are understandable on such missions. ISRO Chandrayaan-2 was one of the missions with high expectations that crashed.

NASA Encourages ISRO

As a word of encouragement for the Indian space organization, NASA's chief innovation and technology officer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Tom Soderstrom said that such missions are expected to fail. In a bid to encourage future space expeditions, the officer said that failures shouldn't deter the scientific community in India.

While the ISRO Chandrayaan-2 Vikram lander crashed 500 meters away from landing, NASA is pushing the agency to keep going. Soderstrom says that even though the Vikram lander didn't make it to the lunar surface, it shouldn't stop the agency from attempting again 'as this is the business out there'.

NASA Also Failed

ISRO isn't the only agency that failed in its attempt, NASA also has its list of failed expeditions. "So we get super nervous every single time. We never know if it's going to work there, one little thing goes wrong and the whole thing is expected to fail," Soderstrom told IANS. Landing a rover is a very challenging thing, he said.

The indeed crashed Vikram lander was one of the biggest setbacks for ISRO. But that's the difficult business and NASA has also failed before tasting success, he said. "That's the business because it's a difficult business. I wouldn't lose heart just because we lost one or two rovers," the officer said. "When we went to the Moon, it failed time and time again, but eventually, it worked."

At the same time, he also highlighted that scientists need to come together so that more people can participate in future space missions. "In the end, the Earth is ours and if we, one day, need to find a new Earth, it's going to be the whole Earth that has to pull it together because it's a big job," he said.