Chandrayaan 2 - it is the courage to continue that counts

I was not aware of the exact day of Chandrayaan-2 landing until I read that ISRO abruptly lost all communications with the craft just a few minutes before its planned landing. I saw so many posts from my Indian friends and relatives either glorifying or politicizing this event. I fail to understand how a prime minister of a country and mere party politics became a centerpiece of news related to science and technology. India's space program is several decades old and had some spectacular achievements including the recent Mangalyaan (Mars Orbiter Mission) which was also made into a Hindi movie. I think Chandrayaan-2 deserves to have its own movie even more than Mangalyaan just because it was trying to do something that was not achieved before on that part of the moon by any other country. If any country wants to progress in science and technology it needs to empower its people to take up new unsolved challenges and more importantly, learn from failures. 

In the area of research and development, it is important to learn to deal with failures. Believe me, there are many setbacks in any scientific endeavor, therefore, failure is a very important aspect of any scientist's life. I cannot even count the number of reactions that failed during more than two decades of my journey in research and development. Some failures are massive, some really hurt you and make you start from scratch, some make you doubt your strategy, some are due to your own mistakes, and some are due to unavoidable circumstances. No matter what reason, it is guaranteed that failure is going to be there, more often than we want. As a scientist, one has to be prepared for it. At the same time, I don't want to paint a picture that a scientist's life is only full of failures, there are moments of glory and spectacular achievements, and there are many moments of adrenaline rush that make you wake up and run to the lab to analyze the results of your experiments. These spectacular moments are accompanied by disproportionate amounts of failed attempts, and that's why it's important to educate people that in science failure is not something that should be discouraged or glorified. The attempt must be applauded, but at the same time, it must be analyzed sincerely, as lessons from failure are many times more important than what we learn from success. Many scientific challenges are extremely difficult and some even look practically impossible, but that shouldn't stop us from trying and failing as it's the only way to conquer the impossible.

When I watched the Apollo-13 movie, I was so impressed by it that I watched it with my kids at least a couple of times after watching it alone. It is not a movie about a successful moon landing, rather it was an unsuccessful attempt, but the resilience and composure shown by the people involved in the mission to bring back astronauts safely back to earth were impressive. Every failure teaches us something, there is always a lesson to learn, but this is true only if we are willing to learn. Only a few failures get the recognition they deserve, and there is no mechanism yet to publish the failed results. Normally people don't care about failure or they play a blame game or they feel ashamed to discuss it. Disappointment is natural after any failure, but at the same time, the efforts should be appreciated, not only by others but mainly by the people who were part of the team. The team who tried really hard but failed needs to value their efforts and understand the importance of their work. If they don't then they will only remember the end result, a failed attempt, not the rest of it, which is equally important. 

Then, why I am against glorifying failure. Because failure doesn't need it, the team or a person already knows that their attempt was not successful, and any glorification has the risk of sounding too fake or too sympathetic. Failure only needs encouragement and genuine support which can motivate a reattempt with equal enthusiasm and vigor. It's a natural instinct to play safe and become defensive after failure, but that's not always the right strategy, it all depends on the context. Yes, Chandrayaan-2 failed, but it was a brave attempt. I want to end with a quote by Henry Ford, "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." Very well done ISRO scientists, let's try it again as there is nothing that science cannot achieve, provided, we do not stop trying.

Thanks for reading and please share your opinion about this topic.