Hindi English Translation || Editorial || On the moon, over the moon

On the moon, over the moon

Chandrayaan-3 signals (संकेत) the launch of India’s time in space exploration (अंतरिक्ष अन्वेषण)

At 5.40 p.m. on August 23, the Chandrayaan-3 lander was a 1.7-tonne hunk (टुकड़ा) of metal, plastic, and glass speeding (तेजी) in an orbit some 30 km above the moon. But in the next 23 minutes, it had made history by slowing down, righting itself, and — guided by a suite of sensors and actuators — gently (धीरे से, हल्के से) descending (उतरना) to the moon’s surface. As it touched down shortly after 6 p.m., people gathered at the various Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) (भारतीय अंतरिक्ष अनुसंधान संगठन) centres, and across India were jubilant (very happy, joyful, overjoyed, excited, joyous, elated, exhilarated, jubilant, ecstatic, blissful). India is only the fourth country in history to have soft-landed a spacecraft (अंतरिक्ष यान) on the moon, and the first to have done so in the moon’s South Polar region. The feat illustrated (show, demonstrate, display, exemplify, represent) a simple fact of complex space flight (अंतरिक्ष उड़ान) missions: by virtue of (because of, on account of, owing to, thanks to) their enormous hunger (need, appetite, strong desire, liking) for resources but at the same time capacity for caprice, succeeding at them is indistinguishable (incomprehensible, hard to understand, indiscernible, imperceptible) from a triumph of human will (मानव इच्छा). That is why they are capable of galvanising people — as Chandrayaan-3 has now done for India. The immediate implication (consequence, result, effect, ramification, repercussion, reverberation) of the Chandrayaan-3 lander now sitting on the moon is that ISRO took away the right lessons from the failure of the preceding (पिछला, पूर्ववर्ती) mission, Chandrayaan-2. In September 2019, as the Chandrayaan-2 lander was 2.1 km above the lunar (it refers to the Moon) surface, ISRO lost contact. Based on data transmitted by the lander until then and that from other sources, including the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, ISRO pieced together the distal (away from the point of attachment or origin; it refers to distance, while proximal indicates proximity; peripheral, remote, outermost, farthermost, endmost, and far-flung) causes of the lander’s premature (असामयिक) demise. Experts at ISRO then modified 21 subsystems to give rise to (produce, bring about, make for) the upgraded Chandrayaan-3 lander. The latter is particularly distinguished (observe, recognize, identify, see, perceive, discern) by the redundancies built into it: if one component or process had failed, another would likely have taken over.

Taking a broader view of time, Chandrayaan-3 sits at an important juncture (समय, अवसर). India is now a member of the Artemis Accords (NASA, in coordination with the U.S. Department of State, established the Artemis Accords in 2020 together with seven other founding member nations. The purpose of these Accords is to establish a common vision via a practical set of principles, guidelines, and best practices to enhance the governance of the civil exploration and use of outer space with the intention of advancing the Artemis Program), the U.S.-led multilateral (बहुपक्षीय) effort to place humans on the moon by 2025 and thereafter to expand human space exploration to the earth’s wider neighbourhood (अड़ोस-पड़ोस, क्षेत्र) in the solar system. Given (considering, taking into account, bearing in mind) the firsts that India has now achieved, it has an opportunity to lead the other Artemis countries interested in maximising the contributions of the space sector to their economies, alongside the U.S. While Russia and India were not racing to land on the moon this week, the failure of Russia’s Luna-25 (Luna 25, also designated the Luna-Glob-Lander, is a Russian lunar lander mission that launched on 10 August 2023. It was targeted to the south polar region of the Moon. it has ended in failure with the spacecraft crashing onto the lunar surface) spacecraft on August 19 foretells the country’s ability to contribute in more limited fashion (way, method, approach of doing something), in this decade at least, to the International Lunar Research Station programme, which it leads together with China as a parallel (similar, equivalent, matching, resembling) axis (alliance, coalition, bloc, union) to the Artemis Accords. With Chandrayaan-3, India has also demonstrated familiarity with the major types of interplanetary spacecraft: orbiters, landers, and rovers. The Chandrayaan-3 rover is rudimentary (first, initial, primary, basic, foundational, elementary), and speaks to an important focus area for the Indian space programme: the planning and implementation of scientific missions. The data from Chandrayaan-3’s scientific instruments will be crucial because the mission will be the first to physically, chemically, and thermally characterise (describe, indicate, specify, identify, classify) the soil, subsoil (the layer of soil that is under the surface level), and air near the moon’s South Pole on location. India has some measure (system, standard) of technological superiority now compared to most other space-faring (space travel; space travelling) countries, and it should press the advantage by going to more places in the solar system and conducting stellar (relating to stars) science. The better space-based scientific instruments currently operated by India are largely (mostly, mainly, generally) concerned with earth-observation and remote-sensing (the acquiring of information from a distance); AstroSat is a notable exception (special case) as the forthcoming (approaching, upcoming, imminent, nearing, impending) Aditya-L1 (ISRO’s solar mission Aditya-L1 to a vantage point in space, known as the L1 Lagrange point, to do imaging and study of the sun. (The L1 point of the Earth-Sun system affords an uninterrupted view of the sun and it lies 1.5 million kilometres inside the Earth’s orbit, partway between the Sun and the Earth). (vantage point means a position from which you can see things well)), XPoSat, and NISAR missions are expected to be. In the relatively (comparatively, fairly, reasonably, satisfactorily) recent past, Chandrayaan-1 was scientifically well-equipped (provided with all the necessary equipment) whereas the Mars Orbiter Mission had room for improvement (it was a technology demonstrator but at the same time it did get to Mars). Better science results demand more investment in research, both in the public and private sectors, rather than spending cuts (the act of reducing spending), and mission design that puts scientific outcomes before engineering thresholds (it is an amount, level, or limit of something; lower limit) and launchability (capability of being launched).

The landing also brings to a close the second phase of India’s lunar exploration programme. The third phase will begin with a collaboration between ISRO and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) (The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was designated as a core performance agency to support the Japanese government’s overall aerospace development and utilization) for the Lunar Polar Exploration (LUPEX) (The Indo-Japanese Lunar Polar Exploration (LUPEX) mission is envisaged to explore the permanently shadowed regions or the dark side of the moon. The main objective of the mission is to confirm the presence of water in the polar regions of the moon) mission, which also involves a lander and a rover that will study water-ice at the moon’s South Pole. LUPEX is set to use the landing system that ISRO developed for Chandrayaan-2 and -3. This is an important reason why the failure of the surface component of the Chandrayaan-2 mission placed its successor (something that comes after another thing; replacement, substitute) under great pressure. It is notable that this is the gear that Russia was to provide for Chandrayaan-2, but could not in the aftermath (consequences, after-effects, repercussions; end result, outcome) of its ill-fated (unfortunate, regrettable, unlucky) Fobos-Grunt mission in 2011, prompting (cause, result in, lead to, bring about, give rise to) ISRO to develop one on its own. Finally, ISRO is on a roughly fixed path vis-à-vis (concerning, with regard to, in relation to, as/in comparison with, in connection with (Vis-à-vis from Latin via. French, means literally “face-to-face)) future missions from which deviations — such as those as a result of Chandrayaan-2 and the COVID-19 pandemic, but also the sluggish (inactive, slow, lazy, dull, depressed, lethargic, apathetic) production of rockets — are financially and politically expensive. The success of Chandrayaan-3 gives ISRO the confidence to graduate (progress, advance, go up, move up, proceed, develop) to the next steps: satellites powered by electric motors, quantum communications (it involves sending encrypted data as classical bits over networks, while the keys to decrypt the information are encoded and transmitted in a quantum state using qubits. Some companies have taken advantage of this property to create networks for transmitting highly sensitive data based on a process called quantum key distribution, or QKD. In theory, at least, these networks are ultra-secure), human space flight, reusable launch vehicles, planetary habitation (place of residence, house, dwelling (place), abode), and interplanetary communications, to name a few (to provide just few examples, even though there are more). The commerce (trade, business) of space also demands a greater launch cadence (the flow or rhythm of events; rhythm, tempo, pulse) and lower launch costs. Private sector contributions to many of these aspects will be crucial, especially to accelerate (increase, expedite, speed up, facilitate) innovation and open new vistas (view, prospect, aspect, perspective) in which this renewed vector (course; course of action) of human enterprise (activity, venture, pursuit, endeavour) can contribute to India’s development. India is over the moon. From now on, ISRO will have the chance to lead from the front (take a leadership role (in guiding others to do)).

Courtesy: The Hindu

Important Word List With Meaning

1.signal (noun)

Hindi Meaning - संकेत
English Meaning - indicate, express, announce, declare.

2.space exploration (noun)

Hindi Meaning - अंतरिक्ष अन्वेषण
English Meaning - investigation, with the use of crewed and uncrewed spacecraft, of scientifically valuable destinations across our solar system beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Human/Civil space exploration helps to address fundamental questions about our place in the Universe and the history of our solar system.

3.hunk (noun)

Hindi Meaning - टुकड़ा
English Meaning - a large piece of something.

4.speed (verb)

Hindi Meaning - तेजी
English Meaning - move quickly.

5.gently (adverb)

Hindi Meaning - धीरे से, हल्के से
English Meaning - softly.

6.descend (verb)

Hindi Meaning - उतरना
English Meaning - move downwards, go down, come down, alight.

7.Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) (noun)

Hindi Meaning - भारतीय अंतरिक्ष अनुसंधान संगठन
English Meaning - Indian Space Research Organisation, formed in 1969, superseded the erstwhile Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR). Vikram Sarabhai, having identified the role and importance of space technology in a Nation’s development, provided ISRO with the necessary direction to function as an agent of development. ISRO then embarked on its mission to provide the Nation space-based services and to develop the technologies to achieve the same independently.

8.spacecraft (noun)

Hindi Meaning - अंतरिक्ष यान
English Meaning - a vehicle or machine designed to fly/travel in outer space (i.e. outside the earth’s atmosphere).

9.space flight (noun)

Hindi Meaning - अंतरिक्ष उड़ान
English Meaning - space travel; a journey through space.

10.human will (noun)

Hindi Meaning - मानव इच्छा
English Meaning - it refers to the human capacity to actively decide what to do instead of reacting automatically to stimuli.

11.preceding (adjective)

Hindi Meaning - पिछला, पूर्ववर्ती
English Meaning - previous, prior, earlier.

12.premature (adjective)

Hindi Meaning - असामयिक
English Meaning - untimely, early, too soon, too early, before time; ill-timed, ill-considered.

13.juncture (noun)

Hindi Meaning - समय, अवसर
English Meaning - time, moment, point, occasion, situation.

14.multilateral (adjective)

Hindi Meaning - बहुपक्षीय
English Meaning - involving many different countries.

15.neighbourhood (noun)

Hindi Meaning - अड़ोस-पड़ोस, क्षेत्र
English Meaning - (surrounding) area, region, district/country.

16.over the moon (phrase)

English Meaning - extremely happy, delighted, euphoric, joyful, excited, joyous, elated, exhilarated, jubilant, ecstatic, blissful.

17.Chandrayaan-3 (noun)

English Meaning - Chandrayaan-3 is the third lunar exploration mission developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), after Chandrayaan-1 (launched on October 22, 2008) & Chandrayaan-2 (launched on 22 July 2019). Chandrayaan-3 is to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. It consists of Lander and Rover configuration. It was launched by LVM3 from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota on July 14, 2023. The Chandrayaan-3 has reached the lunar orbit almost a month after its launch, and its lander, Vikram, and rover, Pragyaan, were landed on the Moon on August 23. Notably, the landing site of the latest mission is more or less the same as the Chandrayaan-2: near the south pole of the moon at 70 degrees latitude.

18.Chandrayaan 2 (noun)

English Meaning - Chandrayaan-2 was the second lunar exploration mission developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), after Chandrayaan-1. It consisted of a lunar orbiter, and also included the Vikram lander, and the Pragyan lunar rover, all of which were developed in India. The spacecraft was launched on 22 July 2019. However, the lander crashed when it deviated from its intended trajectory while attempting to land on 6 September 2019. ISRO re-attempted a landing in 2023 with Chandrayaan-3.

19.Chandrayaan 1 (noun)

English Meaning - Chandrayaan-1 was the first Indian lunar probe under the Chandrayaan program. It was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation in October 2008. The mission was a major boost to India’s space program, as India researched and developed its own technology in order to explore the Moon.

20.lander (Vikram) (noun)

English Meaning - a spacecraft designed to land on the surface of a planet/moon. A lander is immobile, and maintains its fixed position once it has landed.

21.rover (Pragyan) (noun)

English Meaning - a space exploration vehicle designed to move and explore the surface of a planet or moon. A rover is mobile, and has wheels with which it can move.

22.suite (noun)

English Meaning - a collection of; a set of; a group of.

23.actuator (noun)

English Meaning - a control motor; it is a part of a device or machine that helps it to achieve physical movements by converting energy, often electrical, air, or hydraulic, into mechanical force. Simply put, it is the component in any machine that enables movement.

24.touch down (phrasal verb)

English Meaning - (of an aircraft/spacecraft) land, alight, descend, come down.

25.jubilant (adjective)

English Meaning - very happy, joyful, overjoyed, excited, joyous, elated, exhilarated, jubilant, ecstatic, blissful.

26.soft-land (verb)

English Meaning - (of a spacecraft) to land on the moon or a planet without any damage/destruction incurred to the vehicle.

27.soft-landing (noun)

English Meaning - a landing by a spacecraft on the moon or a planet without any damage/destruction incurred to the vehicle.

28.feat (noun)

English Meaning - achievement, accomplishment, attainment, triumph.

29.illustrate (verb)

English Meaning - show, demonstrate, display, exemplify, represent.

30.mission (noun)

English Meaning - an expedition (journey) into space.

31.by virtue of (phrase)

English Meaning - because of, on account of, owing to, thanks to.

32.hunger (noun)

English Meaning - need, appetite, strong desire, liking.

33.caprice (noun)

English Meaning - whim, fancy, urge, impulse; changeableness, volatility, inconstancy, unpredictability.

34.indistinguishable (adjective)

English Meaning - incomprehensible, hard to understand, indiscernible, imperceptible.

35.will (noun)

English Meaning - desire, wish, disposition, intention; determination, will power, commitment, resolution.

36.galvanize (verb)

English Meaning - inspire, motivate, encourage, stimulate, influence, energize.

37.implication (noun)

English Meaning - consequence, result, effect, ramification, repercussion, reverberation.

38.take away (phrasal verb)

English Meaning - to remember a key a key fact, point, or idea, typically one emerging from a previous experience.

39.lunar (adjective)

English Meaning - it refers to the Moon.

40.orbiter (noun)

English Meaning - a spacecraft designed to go into orbit of a planet or other celestial body without landing on its surface.

41.distal (adjective)

English Meaning - away from the point of attachment or origin; it refers to distance, while proximal indicates proximity; peripheral, remote, outermost, farthermost, endmost, and far-flung.

42.demise (noun)

English Meaning - end, failure, collapse.

43.give rise to (phrase)

English Meaning - produce, bring about, make for.

44.upgraded (adjective)

English Meaning - enhanced, improved, advanced.

45.distinguish (verb)

English Meaning - observe, recognize, identify, see, perceive, discern.

46.redundancy (noun)

English Meaning - the inclusion of extra components into a system which are not strictly needed to operate it, but they are added to be used if other components fail.

47.broader superlative adjective of broad (adjective)

English Meaning - comprehensive, extensive, wide, wide-ranging, broad-ranging.

48.Artemis Accords (noun)

English Meaning - NASA, in coordination with the U.S. Department of State, established the Artemis Accords in 2020 together with seven other founding member nations. The purpose of these Accords is to establish a common vision via a practical set of principles, guidelines, and best practices to enhance the governance of the civil exploration and use of outer space with the intention of advancing the Artemis Program.

49.given (preposition)

English Meaning - considering, taking into account, bearing in mind.

50.Luna 25 (noun)

English Meaning - Luna 25, also designated the Luna-Glob-Lander, is a Russian lunar lander mission that launched on 10 August 2023. It was targeted to the south polar region of the Moon. it has ended in failure with the spacecraft crashing onto the lunar surface.

51.foretell (verb)

English Meaning - predict, foresee, anticipate, expect.

52.limited (adjective)

English Meaning - restricted.

53.fashion (noun)

English Meaning - way, method, approach of doing something.

54.parallel (adjective)

English Meaning - similar, equivalent, matching, resembling.

55.axis (noun)

English Meaning - alliance, coalition, bloc, union.

56.interplanetary (adjective)

English Meaning - between planets.

57.rudimentary (adjective)

English Meaning - first, initial, primary, basic, foundational, elementary.

58.speak to (phrasal verb)

English Meaning - discuss something officially; comment on something officially.

59.characterise (verb)

English Meaning - describe, indicate, specify, identify, classify.

60.subsoil (noun)

English Meaning - the layer of soil that is under the surface level.

61.measure (noun)

English Meaning - system, standard.

62.space-faring (noun/adjective)

English Meaning - space travel; space travelling.

63.press (verb)

English Meaning - present, put forward, urge.

64.stellar (adjective)

English Meaning - relating to stars.

65.largely (adverb)

English Meaning - mostly, mainly, generally.

66.Earth Observation (EO) (noun)

English Meaning - it refers to the use of remote sensing technologies to monitor land, marine (seas, rivers, lakes) and atmosphere.

67.remote-sensing (noun)

English Meaning - the acquiring of information from a distance.

68.AstroSat (noun)

English Meaning - AstroSat is India’s first dedicated Space Astronomy Observatory launched into a 650-km, 6° inclination orbit on September 28, 2015, with a lift-off mass of 1515 kg, by PSLV-C30 (XL) rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre Sriharikota.

69.exception (noun)

English Meaning - special case.

70.forthcoming (adjective)

English Meaning - approaching, upcoming, imminent, nearing, impending.

71.Aditya-L1 (noun)

English Meaning - ISRO’s solar mission Aditya-L1 to a vantage point in space, known as the L1 Lagrange point, to do imaging and study of the sun. (The L1 point of the Earth-Sun system affords an uninterrupted view of the sun and it lies 1.5 million kilometres inside the Earth’s orbit, partway between the Sun and the Earth). (vantage point means a position from which you can see things well).

72.XPoSat (noun)

English Meaning - XPoSat (X-ray Polarimeter Satellite) is India’s first dedicated polarimetry mission to study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions. The spacecraft will carry two scientific payloads in a low earth orbit.

73.NASA-ISRO SAR Mission (NISAR)

(noun)English Meaning - a joint Earth-observing mission between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). it will measure Earth’s changing ecosystems, dynamic surfaces, and ice masses providing information about biomass, natural hazards, sea level rise, and groundwater, and will support a host of other applications.

74.relatively (adverb)

English Meaning - comparatively, fairly, reasonably, satisfactorily.

75.well-equipped (adjective)

English Meaning - provided with all the necessary equipment.

76.Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) or Mangalyaan (noun)

English Meaning - India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)—or Mangalyaan (Hindi for “Mars Craft”)—is the country’s first mission to Mars (the Red Planet). The mission aims to test key technologies for interplanetary exploration and to use its five science instruments to study the Martian surface and atmosphere from orbit.

77.room (noun)

English Meaning - opportunity, scope, chance, capacity.

78.spending cut (noun)

English Meaning - the act of reducing spending.

79.threshold (noun)

English Meaning - it is an amount, level, or limit of something; lower limit.

80.launchability (noun)

English Meaning - capability of being launched.

81.bring to a close (phrase)

English Meaning - to end something.

82.Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) (noun)

English Meaning - The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was designated as a core performance agency to support the Japanese government’s overall aerospace development and utilization.

83.Lunar Polar Exploration (LUPEX) mission (noun)

English Meaning - The Indo-Japanese Lunar Polar Exploration (LUPEX) mission is envisaged to explore the permanently shadowed regions or the dark side of the moon. The main objective of the mission is to confirm the presence of water in the polar regions of the moon.

84.successor (noun)

English Meaning - something that comes after another thing; replacement, substitute.

85.aftermath (noun)

English Meaning - consequences, after-effects, repercussions; end result, outcome.

83.ill-fated (adjective)

English Meaning - unfortunate, regrettable, unlucky.

87.Fobos-Grunt mission (noun)

English Meaning - it was Russia’s failed mission in 2011, designed to land on Mars’ moon, Phobos, as well as return soil samples to Earth in order to determine the origin and evolution of this moon.

88.prompt (verb)

English Meaning - cause, result in, lead to, bring about, give rise to.

89.on one’s own (phrase)

English Meaning - by one’s own efforts, all alone, (all) by oneself(all) by oneself.

90.vis-à-vis (preposition)

English Meaning - concerning, with regard to, in relation to, as/in comparison with, in connection with (Vis-à-vis from Latin via. French, means literally “face-to-face).

91.sluggish (adjective)

English Meaning - inactive, slow, lazy, dull, depressed, lethargic, apathetic.

92.graduate (verb)

English Meaning - progress, advance, go up, move up, proceed, develop.

93.quantum communication (noun)

English Meaning - it involves sending encrypted data as classical bits over networks, while the keys to decrypt the information are encoded and transmitted in a quantum state using qubits. Some companies have taken advantage of this property to create networks for transmitting highly sensitive data based on a process called quantum key distribution, or QKD. In theory, at least, these networks are ultra-secure.

94.habitation (noun)

English Meaning - place of residence, house, dwelling (place), abode.

95.planetary habitability (noun)

English Meaning - the measure of a planet’s or a natural satellite’s potential to develop and maintain environments hospitable to life.

96.to name a few (phrase)

English Meaning - to provide just few examples, even though there are more.

97.commerce (noun)

English Meaning - trade, business.

98.cadence (noun)

English Meaning - the flow or rhythm of events; rhythm, tempo, pulse.

99.launch cadence (noun)

English Meaning - the speed/pace at which launching work is organized and completed.