Its not like NASA scientists don't have their rituals too. The Russians, as well, have a history of sticking to their superstitious habits also.
Science doesn't mean you have to be an emotion-less robot.
Science doesn't mean you have to be an emotion-less robot.
For example, Mars is considered as a malicious planet in their astrology and people fear its effects next to Saturn. It is hard for one to find a matching person to marry if he/she is are afflicted by Mars, because one of the belief is that such afflicted person's in-laws will face untimely death. This belief causes so much grief for the parents looking for alliance (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangal_Dosha).
Hopefully scientific missions such as this will help the people to shed their unfounded fear and live better life.
Could you provide some citation here? As far as CV Raman's religious inclinations were concerned, my understanding is that he was an agnostic [1].
Being a scientist himself, I don't think it would have been in his nature to stifle the spirit of scientific inquiry in the name of religion.
I dug up the following for your reference:
http://new.modernrationalist.com/2012/07/science-vs-religion...