Forty years from today, Neil Armstrong took a “small step” marking a “giant leap for mankind”.
Today is the 40th anniversary of man's first footsteps on the moon. On July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and headed towards Earth’s only natural satellite The trip to the moon took three days, and on July 20, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped off the Eagle, Apollo 11's lunar module. The world watched as the astronauts took their first steps on the lunar surface. Neil Armstrong famously said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
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The moon exploration continues and in 2008, first Indian mission to moon Chandrayaan-1 was launched. The unmanned mission’s objectives are to map the chemical characteristics and 3-dimensional topography of lunar surface and to search for existence of water.
Much of the interest on exploration of the moon arise from the abundance of He-3, an isotope of Helium used in nuclear fusion research, on the lunar surface. It’s estimated that 25 tonnes of He3 can power India for several years.