APJ Abdul Kalam inspired us to work on moonlanding mission: Chandrayaan-1 project director Annadurai

The son of a boatman from Tamil Nadu's Rameswaram, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam as President of India inspired Isro to work on a mission to land on Moon. A bright student, his interest in flying made him earn a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Madras Institute of Technology. In 1958, he joined DRDO.
He soon moved to Isro where he was project director of SLV-III, India's first indigenously designed and produced satellite launch vehicle. After rejoining DRDO in 1982, Kalam worked on a programme that produced a number of successful missiles, which helped earned him the nickname 'Missile Man'. Later, he was appointed the President of India from 2002 to 2007.
"When we had met Kalam during a seminar in Udaipur in 2004 to discuss a lunar mission aimed at orbiting Moon (much before Chandrayaan-1 launch), Kalam had suggested, 'why not land on Moon!'," M Annadurai, the then project director of Chandrayaan-1, told TOI. In 2009, the former President, while addressing a gathering of Nasa and Isro scientists in California, suggested that two space organisations must deploy a robotic arm to bring back rock samples from Moon to Earth as this would help expand the probe about the presence of water on Moon.
"Kalam was talking about the Chandrayaan-3 programme, much before it was conceptualised. However, Isro will work on Chandrayaan-3 only after the completion of the ongoing Chandrayaan-2 mission," Annadurai told TOI.
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References

1. ^{^} Madras Institute of Technology (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
2. ^{^} Chandrayaan-1 (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
3. ^{^} Chandrayaan-2 mission (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

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