As India's heavy lift rocket nicknamed 'Bahubali' and its passenger Chandrayaan-2 gear up for their historic flight to the Moon on July 15, Twitter users shared what they would like to take to the lunar surface, with most of them mentioning the national flag.
However, Twitter users also shared many interesting ideas. Gautam Singh, for example, talked about taking a geographical map of India.
On this edition of #RocketScience, P Sreekumar — Director of SSPO — helps us understand why we are going back to the Moon, and how Chandrayaan 2 serves to identify the presence of water below the lunar surface - https://t.co/YuN5SkyPZa #Chandrayaan2 #GSLVmkIII #ISRO pic.twitter.com/rhItflbJXU
— ISRO (@isro) July 12, 2019
"So if an Intelligent ET will find it They can find where do we belong, A Flag will be useless for them," tweeted Singh.
Some users even suggested that Indian soil should be transported to the Moon, while others pointed out to the planetary protection norms aimed to preserve our ability to study other worlds as they exist in their natural states.
Chandrayaan 2, an Indian lunar mission to be launched on 🗓️15 July 2019 will boldly go where no country has ever gone before — the Moon's south polar region.#Chandrayaan2🚀🌑 #ISROMissions 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/wW7dW1nfbp
— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) July 7, 2019
Planetary protection refers to the practice of protecting solar system bodies from contamination by Earth life.
"We can sanitize everything before taking it there. Just like it is done today and was done for the flags," said one user.
"Yep. Very much. Indian soil in the moon. Such a nice headline," the user added.
The question "what you would take to the Moon" was originally posed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
🇮🇳#ISROMissions 🇮🇳#GSLVMkIII carrying #Chandrayaan2 spacecraft, undergoing launch checks at launch pad in Sriharikota. Launch is scheduled at 2:51AM IST on July 15.
— ISRO (@isro) July 11, 2019
Stay tuned for more updates... pic.twitter.com/n2RA14A3KX
ISRO said that it received interesting answers from people around the country, while sharing some of the the wish lists.
Chandrayaan-2 will attempt to soft land the lander, Vikram, and rover, Pragyan, in a high plain between two craters, Manzinus C and Simpelius N, at a latitude of about 70 degree south.
The Indian spacecraft and rover would land near the lunar south pole by September 6 or 7.
The 3.8 tonne complex mission will have an orbiter with 8 scientific experiments, a lander with three experiments, a rover with two experiments and one passive experiment from the US space agency NASA.
Which of these theories is correct? Is there a fifth alternative that no one else has considered? We are looking to find the answer to these questions and more through Chandrayaan 2 — the world’s first mission to the Moon’s south polar region! pic.twitter.com/PHIcA2kr0D
— ISRO (@isro) July 9, 2019
The ambitious mission will make India the fourth nation after the then Soviet Union (Russia), the US and China to land and ride on the moon to conduct various experiments on its orbit, surface, atmosphere and beneath.