The use of Sanskrit, one of the world's oldest languages, declined after the 13th century. India's Chandrayaan-3 is giving it a boost.
While Chandrayaan-3's lander, Vikram, is also a Sanskrit name it most notably honors the late Vikram Sarabhai, father of the Indian space program. Sarabhai served as the first chairman of ISRO, and in November 1947, established the Physics Research Laboratory — the first laboratory in an independent India. The PRL was founded close to three months after the country achieved its long-sought freedom from British rule.
Based in Ahmedabad, India, modern day scientists with the PRL actually developed materials for the recent Chandrayaan-3 mission. They created a spectrometer mounted on the Pragyan rover, meant to glean information about the moon's composition, and a thermal probe onboard the lander that will, for the first time, shallowly prick into lunar soil and measure its temperature.
The Space Applications Center, the second of many science institutions that flourished under Sarabhai's watch, also developed eight cameras that are planted on the lander and rover.
. Vikas is also widely considered to be a portmanteau of Sarabhai's full name — Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai.ISRO has historically leaned toward naming its spacecraft in the ancient language, including with its first Mars orbiter mission dubbed , which launched in 2013 and was successful in studying Martian surface and atmosphere from orbit. It went incommunicado last year when it ran out of battery.
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