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Book Review
Demystifying our cosmic neighbour
T.S.SUBRAMANIAN
THE MYSTERIOUS MOON & INDIA’S CHANDRAYAAN MISSION: Narendra Bhandari; Vigyan Prasar, Department of Science and Technology, A-50, Institutional Area, Sector-62, NOIDA 201 307 (Uttar Pradesh). Rs. 195.
This book was published when the Chandrayaan-1 mission had fired the imagination of the people of India and its success made them feel proud of themselves. So it was a timely publication by Narendra Bhandari, a senior scientist from Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, who has done significant work in the study of the moon since the direct exploration of the moon began in the 1960s. He was among the first group of scientists who investigated the rock samples brought fr
om the moon by the American Apollo and the Soviet Luna missions. He was associated with the Chandrayaan-1 mission since it was conceived and he was a member of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) task force set up to define the mission’s science objectives and the payloads that should fly on the spacecraft. He is, therefore, qualified to write this book.
Informative
The book traverses every point of interest about the moon, why it holds so much of fascination for mankind, the moon-earth relationship and how life evolved on the earth, how planets evolved, the sun and the moon, theories about how the moon was formed, why the moon is dotted with thousands of craters, speculation on the presence of water-ice on the moon, how the era of space exploration began in the 1960s with sending flybys, orbiters and landers to the moon, and finally the humans setting foot on the lunar soil. The book also talks about what motivates the revival of lunar exploration after a lull, how helium 3 found on the moon can be a source of abundant energy and how the moon can be a gateway for other planetary missions. It has a wealth of insightful information on these topics, which makes absorbing reading.
Bhandari begins with an excellent preface with basic information about the moon, and why understanding it “is scientifically important for us since it affects the earth and life on the earth.” The chapter “The Moon-Earth Relationship and Evolution of Life on Earth” is superb that makes racy reading. “We are not sure if life originated on the earth or the seeds of life came from outside,” the author says. The study of lunar rocks had revealed that the period between 3,800 and 3,900 million years ago was an epoch of intense and large impacts on the moon. Bhandari says: “By analogy, because of its proximity, the earth must have also been bombarded by this intense swarm of big bodies. Thus the fossil records show that life on the earth started immediately after this epoch of intense impacts on the earth. Whether the seeds of life were brought to earth by these impacting bodies and the impact material had something to do with the origin of life is, however, not clear…”
Then he notes tellingly: “It is likely that life first originated in the ocean which was a kind of biological soup, with all the necessary chemical ingredients present in it. In the spectacular evolution from the primitive sea-life to evolved land-life, lunar tides should have played a vital role. With high tides, the marine life came to land and some species were left behind to get adapted to ground conditions marking the beginning of land organisms. It is, therefore, possible that the moon has played a crucial role for this giant evolutionary step.”
As the book progresses, it becomes an extremely technical treatise. Bhandari is not able to shake off his penchant for jargon even when he has to deal with the payloads on Chandrayaan-1. Instead of explaining to the lay reader in simple English what experiments these instruments would do, he bamboozles them with technical information in convoluted sentences. This is a terrible failing of the book.
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