Neil deGrasse Tyson on India's Moon Landing & Its Significance | Firstpost POV

India has started exploring the Moon's surface with its Pragyan rover, after it became the first nation to land a craft near the largely unexplored lunar south pole. What does India's achievement mean for the world and what can U.S. and other countries learn from it? American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson tells you on Firstpost POV. 

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1 is that There are now 4 countries who have safely and softly landed on the moon.

From Russia, the Soviet Union, the United States, China, and now India.

I like it when the whole world participates in things and not just 1 country or another.

It's a sign to us all that space is everyone's backyard.

And I foresee a day when in 10 years, 20 maybe, where there are 10 countries or 50 countries.

And so we are all then voyagers to this beautiful grand home we call our universe.

So it's fourth out of how many in the future?

Second, as is true for any science project, you don't wanna redo what someone else has done and already been verified.

So I'm glad India did not land in the same place everybody else has landed on the moon.

You chose a place where no 1 has landed before, and that's the south polar region of the moon.

Now, You might have missed it by a day, the Russian spacecraft, Luna 25, that failed to land successfully.

With this safe landing, Chandrayaan 3, you are the first ones on the block.

Everyone will be watching you and the results of this experiment and this rover and this lander and the search for water.

We think there's water in the South Polar regions for very interesting scientific reasons.

And when Chandrayaan-2 failed, I said to myself, okay, well, there's time to learn from that failure.

Nothing wrong with failing when you're doing something no 1 has done before.

So you need to train the audience to recognize that, okay, we learned from that.

And we make adjustments for the next mission so that those same mistakes are not made.

If you make the same mistakes, no excuse.

You make different mistakes, you kind of expect that.

And this 1 is going along smoothly so far.

And at the time we are recording this, they have yet to deploy the rover.

But that's just the end of the beginning.

We now have the beginning of the science and the engineering and the other technical questions getting asked.

So we look forward to what those results will would be.

Also when Prime Minister Modi came through the United States, and I had the privilege of meeting him at the time, he confirmed for me that he would be signing, and he did sign, the Artemis Accord, which is a document, I forgot how many pages, a dozen pages or so, detailing a cooperative conduct in space for this generation's spacefaring nations.

On the science you would do, the peaceful uses of that science, the sharing of the data.

So, with India landing in the South Pole, making the first measurements there, that will help inform subsequent missions to the South Pole, but not only other Indian missions, but other missions from other nations themselves.

Probably will inform our Artemis mission to the moon where we're sending astronauts because they're going to the South Pole.

We want to know what you found so that we can readjust and recalibrate and reprogram the experiments we would be doing so we can take advantage of what it is that you discovered there first.

Yeah, I think I have to say just because in the United States we know how to do things expensively.

We're good at spending money on missions.

The fact that Chandrayaan cost 74 million in American dollars, 74 million dollars, you know, That's what we spend on movies, okay?

And our missions are typically, the unmanned missions are typically at least twice that much, typically 5 times that much, and occasionally 10 times that much.

So I would be curious how you do it so affordably.

That's important because if you do it affordably, it means you can do it more times.

And it's less of a loss if 1 of them fails.

All of this matters in the total ecology of a space program.

If everything costs a lot of money, then all your eggs in 1 basket, and if that fails, what do you do?

I was delighted to read what adjustments were made on the Chandrayaan-3 relative to 2 Once they figured out why that second mission failed, it was just what's supposed to happen.

When you're clever engineers and, for example, they made sure because the south pole of the moon is more treacherous.

It's not as smooth and flat as the regions selected by the Apollo era astronauts in the United States.

We chose the flattest parts of the moon for the astronauts to land because we don't want to get all the way to the moon and have them tip over because there's a cliff at the original landing site that we didn't anticipate.

So here in the South Pole, the terrain is much rougher.

So they built a wider search and capacity and fuel to go with it, to find a safer place, open your landing zone so that you can, so that's not a risk to you.

And You can do that when your missions are not all that expensive.

We're going to want to know how you guys did it.

If I can get geopolitical on you, Yeah, we stopped going to the moon in 1972.

1990, 2000, 2010, nope, nope, nope, nope.

We went to the moon and stopped going to the moon when we first believed Russia was going to the, the Soviet Union was going to the moon.

Find out they weren't, or they ended their plans, and then we ended our plans.

So no, we didn't go to the moon because we're explorers and it's in our DNA.

Let's be honest with ourselves about that past.

So the United States is very good at reacting to a perceived threat.

We can be if motivated, but we're especially motivated in reaction to geopolitical forces.

China rises up with 1 of the world's largest economies.

We didn't invite them on the International Space station.

They were excluded from this cooperative agreement of space experiments and space, permanent space presence.

So they built their own space program, launched their own astronauts, taikonauts they call them.

They're building their own space station.

They've got their own missions to the moon and that's what they're doing.

And China lately has been kind of a frenemy of the United States.

You know that word frenemy, kind of a friend.

They're our friend and we have a lot of financial comminglings, but there are all these geopolitical issues that create some tension.

And so China says they want to go back to the moon.

To me, that is the simplest and easiest explanation for what I see.

I encourage people, by the way, that our space program didn't really represent the country and all the diversity of the country until we had astronauts and engineers that represented everyone in the country.

And so I know that 1 out of 6 residents of India is Muslim.

Okay, very important legacies, not only in the Hindu traditions of mathematics and contributions to math and science back centuries ago, there are Muslim traditions in science, especially the golden age of Islam a millennium ago.

So if you want to energize children, you can tell them about these legacies.

And you say, if you want to continue these legacies forward into space, let's come together and do this together.

And that way, all the intellectual capital of the country is available to that frontier.

Because without it, it's not, if everyone is not participating, you're not necessarily getting the best minds who are out there.

And so we went through that during our Apollo era.

That was the civil rights movement here in the United States.

Inspired by Martin Luther King himself, inspired by Gandhi.

So, so no, I could not have been part of the space program in the 1960s.

I'm in the backwaters by whatever attitudes prevailed.

All I'm saying, you can, the space exploration could be 1 of the greatest engines of peace the world has ever seen because we're all in this together as residents of a country and ultimately residents of planet earth to explore.


Speaker 0: I see 2 major milestones here. 1 is that There are now 4 countries who have safely and softly landed on the moon. From Russia, the Soviet Union, the United States, China, and now India. I like it when the whole world participates in things and not just 1 country or another. So this is an important step.

It's a sign to us all that space is everyone's backyard. And I foresee a day when in 10 years, 20 maybe, where there are 10 countries or 50 countries. And so we are all then voyagers to this beautiful grand home we call our universe. So it's fourth out of how many in the future? I hope it's many more.

So that's the first. Second, as is true for any science project, you don't wanna redo what someone else has done and already been verified. You wanna do something new. So I'm glad India did not land in the same place everybody else has landed on the moon. That's not interesting.

You chose a place where no 1 has landed before, and that's the south polar region of the moon. Now, You might have missed it by a day, the Russian spacecraft, Luna 25, that failed to land successfully. With this safe landing, Chandrayaan 3, you are the first ones on the block. So that's an important place to be. Everyone will be watching you and the results of this experiment and this rover and this lander and the search for water.

We think there's water in the South Polar regions for very interesting scientific reasons. So I see those as the 2 milestones. And when Chandrayaan-2 failed, I said to myself, okay, well, there's time to learn from that failure. All right? Nothing wrong with failing when you're doing something no 1 has done before.

You expect failure. So you need to train the audience to recognize that, okay, we learned from that. And we make adjustments for the next mission so that those same mistakes are not made. If you make the same mistakes, no excuse. Bad.

You make different mistakes, you kind of expect that. And this 1 is going along smoothly so far. And at the time we are recording this, they have yet to deploy the rover. So congratulations on the soft landing. But that's just the end of the beginning.

We now have the beginning of the science and the engineering and the other technical questions getting asked. So we look forward to what those results will would be. Also when Prime Minister Modi came through the United States, and I had the privilege of meeting him at the time, he confirmed for me that he would be signing, and he did sign, the Artemis Accord, which is a document, I forgot how many pages, a dozen pages or so, detailing a cooperative conduct in space for this generation's spacefaring nations. On the science you would do, the peaceful uses of that science, the sharing of the data. So, with India landing in the South Pole, making the first measurements there, that will help inform subsequent missions to the South Pole, but not only other Indian missions, but other missions from other nations themselves.

Probably will inform our Artemis mission to the moon where we're sending astronauts because they're going to the South Pole. We want to know what you found so that we can readjust and recalibrate and reprogram the experiments we would be doing so we can take advantage of what it is that you discovered there first. Yeah, I think I have to say just because in the United States we know how to do things expensively. We're good at spending money on missions. The fact that Chandrayaan cost 74 million in American dollars, 74 million dollars, you know, That's what we spend on movies, okay?

On our science fiction movies. And our missions are typically, the unmanned missions are typically at least twice that much, typically 5 times that much, and occasionally 10 times that much. So I would be curious how you do it so affordably. That's important because if you do it affordably, it means you can do it more times. Okay.

And it's less of a loss if 1 of them fails. All of this matters in the total ecology of a space program. If everything costs a lot of money, then all your eggs in 1 basket, and if that fails, what do you do? You got to start from scratch again. I was delighted to read what adjustments were made on the Chandrayaan-3 relative to 2 Once they figured out why that second mission failed, it was just what's supposed to happen.

When you're clever engineers and, for example, they made sure because the south pole of the moon is more treacherous. It's not as smooth and flat as the regions selected by the Apollo era astronauts in the United States. We chose the flattest parts of the moon for the astronauts to land because we don't want to get all the way to the moon and have them tip over because there's a cliff at the original landing site that we didn't anticipate. So here in the South Pole, the terrain is much rougher. So they built a wider search and capacity and fuel to go with it, to find a safer place, open your landing zone so that you can, so that's not a risk to you.

Just what should happen. And You can do that when your missions are not all that expensive. I tip my hat to this. We're going to want to know how you guys did it. That's a good thing.

If I can get geopolitical on you, Yeah, we stopped going to the moon in 1972. We could have stayed, but we didn't. We could have gone in 1980, we didn't. 1990, 2000, 2010, nope, nope, nope, nope. We went to the moon and stopped going to the moon when we first believed Russia was going to the, the Soviet Union was going to the moon.

Find out they weren't, or they ended their plans, and then we ended our plans. So no, we didn't go to the moon because we're explorers and it's in our DNA. No, we went because we feared Russia. Let's be honest with ourselves about that past. All right.

So the United States is very good at reacting to a perceived threat. We're excellent at that. Less good at being proactive. We can be if motivated, but we're especially motivated in reaction to geopolitical forces. So what happens in the last 10 years?

China rises up with 1 of the world's largest economies. They build a space program. We didn't invite them on the International Space station. They were excluded from this cooperative agreement of space experiments and space, permanent space presence. So they built their own space program, launched their own astronauts, taikonauts they call them.

They're building their own space station. They've got their own missions to the moon and that's what they're doing. And China lately has been kind of a frenemy of the United States. You know that word frenemy, kind of a friend. They're our friend and we have a lot of financial comminglings, but there are all these geopolitical issues that create some tension.

And so China says they want to go back to the moon. We say we're going back to the moon. To me, that is the simplest and easiest explanation for what I see. I encourage people, by the way, that our space program didn't really represent the country and all the diversity of the country until we had astronauts and engineers that represented everyone in the country. And so I know that 1 out of 6 residents of India is Muslim.

Okay, very important legacies, not only in the Hindu traditions of mathematics and contributions to math and science back centuries ago, there are Muslim traditions in science, especially the golden age of Islam a millennium ago. So if you want to energize children, you can tell them about these legacies. And you say, if you want to continue these legacies forward into space, let's come together and do this together. And that way, all the intellectual capital of the country is available to that frontier. Because without it, it's not, if everyone is not participating, you're not necessarily getting the best minds who are out there.

And so we went through that during our Apollo era. That was the civil rights movement here in the United States. Okay. Inspired by Martin Luther King himself, inspired by Gandhi. All right.

So, so no, I could not have been part of the space program in the 1960s. They weren't thinking of me. I'm in the backwaters by whatever attitudes prevailed. So this is an appeal. All I'm saying, you can, the space exploration could be 1 of the greatest engines of peace the world has ever seen because we're all in this together as residents of a country and ultimately residents of planet earth to explore.

Of planet Earth to explore our own. You you

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Neil deGrasse Tyson on India's Moon Landing & Its Significance | Firstpost POV