Chandrayaan 2: Partial success, ISRO should be proud of what it's achieved

It's important to note that the odds were against anybody pulling off a soft landing at the first attempt

The Chandrayaan 2 mission will be classified as a partial success. The most ambitious component– a soft landing in an unknown, un-surveyed spot followed by exploration via a rover vehicle – has failed, for reasons unknown at time of writing.  But the orbiter is functioning fine, and it will continue to carry out its scientific experiments. 

In many respects, a soft landing on the moon is a very challenging task. Any soft landing requires the lander to gradually lose speed with respect to the moon as it comes closer to the surface.  This requires tricky calculation since the moon has