One Special Day which we celebrate As NATIONAL SPACE DAY Astronomy is a subject that has fascinated humans for ages. We have always been curious about what is happening outside our planet, how does the earth look from the moon -green or blue, what is a black hole, how does Jupiter look like or what is actual texture of the rings of Saturn. Movies, animations and books have given us a vague idea about the universe and our galaxy. But experiencing this and going to space would have been the dream of countless people on earth. The beauty of this topic is that it interests people of all ages, even adults get confused with some of the secrets of our universe and are trying to find an answer to their uncountable queries related to earth and space. To celebrate this fascination of people towards space and to preserve and promote it, we Indians celebrate the first Friday of May as National Space Day. This year’s theme for National Space Day was “Satellites Improve Life”. It’s a strange fact that our lives are being controlled and driven by devices or equipment that we cannot even see, isn’t it? There is a web of interconnected networks around us and people are working day and night to control and maintain that network and even set up some new networks to improve the services that are being provided to the users, but everything indirectly occurs with the help of digital signals that are transmitted with the help of satellites. We can even decide upon carrying an umbrella when we go to work in the morning by just looking at the information about that day’s weather given on a weather forecasting application. All this information is provided with the help of satellites. Our national security also depends upon satellites. So, more or less, our life is being controlled with the help of some hi-tech gadgets in space. There is so much to discuss this topic, that we need a special day to tell everyone about its importance and hence we celebrate this day. The topic “space” is a complete package of amusing and confusing things. It is so astonishing to know that if we look at some galaxies in space, we would be looking back in time. It is even more astonishing to know that we cannot state confidently that we are the only planet having a life, there can be many. Not considering the hypothetical theories given by the scientists, we are not certain about the formation of the earth and also how it will end. We have even started to develop an interim one kind of life that is likely to exist on other planets in this vast universe. Conspiracy theories and science fiction are one of the greatest themes chosen by the moviemakers that give wings to our imagination that makes us land in a ‘land of mystery’. Scientists even state that rain is in the form of diamond on Neptune and Uranus, but again all these theories are hypothetical and we are not sure about this because even scientists and researchers can be seen divided into groups stating different reasons for a particular phenomenon in space. We have even started cherishing the idea of space tourism, buying land on the moon and even inhabiting Mars. Ironically, no one has visited every corner of the earth but everyone wants to visit the surface of Mars. The big tech companies are now working upon space tourism and even talk about achieving this wildest dream for some shortly. Now, this field is no longer a national or international matter, it has become a private affair. Some even consider it as a potential business-oriented thing that will give rise to a whole new industry. Robotics and A.I. is being widely used to find the favourable conditions on other planets that can support life and also help us to find answers to some of the unanswered mysteries of the universe like dark energy and dark matter, to name a few. Indian astronomy has thrived over the predictions made by our ancestors like Aryabhatt and has survived on the research done by our great scientists at ISRO. India has established its name for launching space missions with budgets that were considered too less by the world like the Mars Orbital Mission or Mangalyan. Though we were not able to achieve success for Chandrayan-2, then research is all about experimentations and we need to and must keep experimenting with our space missions because we have a name in the international domain for them and we are proud of that. Every space mission requires the knowledge of professionals from numerous fields. We require the technicality of an engineer, experience of a doctor, creativity of equipment designers, thesis of researches, the expertise of astrophysicists, programming of computer scientists and funds from the government or a firm to be successful. So, you see, there is a scope of numerous careers in this field. Just like the foundation of a building has pillars to support it, similarly, all these professionals work together for the success of a space mission. The celebration of National Space day is also a way to pay respect to our space scientists. Being a space scientist requires courage because it is not everyone’s thing to be a part of a space mission that can cost you your life. Living in space is not like what you imagine. In zero gravity, the metabolism processes of our body do not function properly, the body’s physiological processes are disturbed and also, they are prone to harmful radiations. Along with this, hardware malfunctioning of space-crafts or unpredictable solar storms, meteorites and other dangers are always there to welcome them in space. Hence, we need a day to pay tribute to these real-life heroes. Concluding this discussion is a difficult task as we still have a lot to discuss this topic, but more or less one fact is clear that we live in a world that is full of mysteries and space is like a blanket that surrounds all those mysteries. It is fun to know about them and acknowledging the quench for solving these, as a special day.
