'Chandrayaan 3 mission an overall success': NASA former officer Mike Gold

Whether it succeeds or not, India's Chandrayaan-3 mission will be an overall success at a time when efforts are being made to establish a permanent presence on the Moon, said NASA former official Mike Gold. He said the Chandrayaan-3 will literally move the collaboration forward to the Moon.

Texas (USA): Chief Growth Officer of Redwire Space and NASA former official Mike Gold on August 23 praised India’s Chandrayaan 3 mission and said that the mission itself is an overall success, whether it succeeds or not.

Mike Gold, a well-known name with the space fraternity is also considered the architect of Artemis Record, a set of agreements that lay out the plan and framework for the responsible exploration of the Moon. He was a former associate administrator for Space Policy and Partnerships at NASA.

Talking to ANI, Mike Gold said, “We are entering into a new era. The Artemis era of exploration of the Moon where we’re going not just once, not just twice but to establish a permanent presence on the Moon. And this mission will gather invaluable data to help drive our understanding of the Moon, our ability to utilize resources and ultimately where we’re going to establish settlements on the Moon. So this is a vital part of that process. And by the way, whether the mission succeeds or landing or not, the mission itself, in my opinion, is an overall success.”

“It will literally move the collaboration forward to the Moon. Right now a lot of our collaboration with NASA and ISRO is focused on Earth, which is terrific, such as projects such as NISAR, where with India we’re going to have radar systems that will be able to study the Earth. And create a lot of vital data to tackle climate change and issues related to our change in climate, which is going to be so important for India, for the US and for the entire world," he said.

"Chandrayaan-3 as well as the signing of the Artemis, we’re seeing that partnership go beyond Earth’s orbit to the surface of the Moon where the next era of both robotic and human space exploration is going to take place,” Mike Gold added, an ANI report said.