Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Stunning achievement by NASA' that was published in Newsband

Stunning achievement by NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Juno spacecraft has successfully entered the orbit around Jupiter. Unlike its predecessor, the Galileo spacecraft that explored the planet between 1995 and 2003, Juno will study Jupiter much more thoroughly given the array of nine scientific instruments that it carries on board. The scientists now expect to collect enough informat

ion to further our understanding of how the giant planet was formed some 4.5 billion years ago, and of the origins of the solar system. The amount of water it contains and the nature of its core will provide clues about where the planet formed early in the system’s life span.

Juno's 2.8 billion km voyage has once again signalled the triumph of modern science & technology. This successful flight also underscores a basic philosophy for human existence: that scientific method is the most fruitful way of opening up & verifying new horizons of reality. And through this increasing knowledge of our cosmic surroundings comes a new, humble self-awareness: our precarious, contingent existence on this planet

Congratulations to the scientists, astronomers, and even the ordinary people who toiled to prepare the spacecraft and others administrative and lower rung workers without whom such mission would have not been possible.

Juno is currently the most exciting and forward level Space exploration ever, since the NASA embarked on their first First Ten Year timed Mission of "Landing Man on the Moon" that began in 1961, announced by the then President John F. Kennedy. While these are important attempts to learn and earn natural phenomena that occurred at the level of the Universe, and costs trillions of dollars and material resources from the earth getting used up, there are many mundane problems of earth, such as Poverty, Ethnic Fights/Terror problems and Global warming - all of these would have to be answered at the same level of the importance given to Space probes and Space technology developments.

This is indeed a stunning achievement by NASA. We look forward to the day when ISRO too sends spacecraft beyond the Asteroid Belt.