The mysteries of outer space have long held a singular fascination for man. He has always felt a mysterious attraction for the dots and orbs which appear to be suspended from the blue sky above. He has been fascinated by the sun, the moon and they stars. He has often wondered as to how they came to be born of what material they are all made, what keeps them from falling etc. In order to satisfy his curiosity, he has longed to explore these splendid worlds in person. It is this longing of his he given birth to a whole body of science fiction.
The first step towards the conquest of the moon was taken when Sputnik. I was launched by the Soviet Union on October 4,1957. It was on that day that the Mascow Radio thrilled the wondering world with the breath-taking news that Russia had rocketed an earth satellite into outer space. It was also announced that the satellite was circling the world once every ninety five minutes. It was however, on May 25, 1961 that a positive impulse was given for the conquest of the moon. That day, President J. F. Kennedy, in a special message to a the U. S. Congress declared : “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safety to earth.
The goal was announced. During ten years that followed a lot of space- work was done. Through numerous spacecraft, both manned and unmanned sent into orbit a whole body of information about the hazards in outer space was collected. Services of experts were harnessed to combat technological problems of space travel and to study the effects of such journeys on living creatures, conditions on the moon etc.
At the back of this prolonged research was a fantastic organisation of science and technology. It was this, together with the spirit of adventure inherent in man that made the achievement of the goal possible. Since then, man has visited the moon several times. So that fresh moon landings do not make news now. In 1984, with Soviet Union’s Astronaut first India astronaut Captain Rakesh Sharma landed on moon and said Sare Jahan Se Achha about India.
On of the reasons why scientist all over the world had been loooking forward to man’s first visit to the moon was the belief that it held the secret to the history of the solar system. That was because the moon has no atmosphere. In fact it has an almost complete vaccume. Scientists hoped that a close look at the lunar soil would give them better understanding of now the earth was formed. Analysis of the moon rock brought back by the American astronaute does not appear to have fulfilled their hopes.