Moonshot 

On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. It was a heroic feat of humanity. The whole world was excited. I remember being in 9th grade in a small, sleepy town, Dahanu, about 120 km north of Mumbai. Newspaper front pages were full of pictures and stories about the Apollo mission, space exploration, astronauts, the moon, and exciting benefits to humanity. Every child wanted to become an astronaut. The local government of Dahanu had just completed a large project of converting 200 acres of salty creek land, which looked like a moon land, into a freshwater lake. The recent rains had filled the whole land with water. It appeared like a huge ocean. The local authorities named it "Chanda Sagar," meaning "Moon Ocean". That was the kind of excitement that touched everyone on the whole planet. But, it all began in 1961.

On May 25, 1961, John F. Kennedy, the President of the United States of America, affirmatively stated in a speech to Congress that America would land on the moon within a decade. Ironically, the American space program was not developed enough during that period and had not carried a human into Earth's orbit by then. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was in orbit on April 12, 1961. On February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American astronaut to orbit Earth. The movie Hidden Figures tells a fascinating story of how the African American female "human computers" made John Glenn's flight possible. JFK delivered a famous "Moonshot" speech to a crowd of about 40,000 people on September 12, 1962, at Rice University, "We choose to go to the moon," which caught Americans' imaginations on fire. JFK's strong commitment hugely boosted the American space program, and the next president, Lyndon B. Johnson, continued supporting it. Eventually, America became the first country to send humans to the moon in 1969.

Fast forward to 2021. Over the past few decades, scientists have warned that humanity is facing an existential crisis due to climate change. In 2021, we were at the tipping point of the irreversible effects of climate change. Biden-Harriss government calls for the "Hydrogen-shot" to bring down the cost of "low-carbon" hydrogen to one dollar for one kg within one decade (known as "1-1-1") (https://www.energy.gov/topics/hydrogen-shot). We must achieve this for the progress of all people.

Our mission at Hyurja (https://www.hyurja.com/) is to develop technology and achieve this 1-1-1 shot. In JFK's words, we undertake to work on Hydrogen Shot "not because it is easy, but because it is hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win." Stupid, it is "MEGA" (Make Earth Great Again).