India has achieved a historic milestone in space exploration with the successful landing of a spacecraft on the rugged, unexplored south pole of the moon.
The mission is being hailed as crucial to lunar exploration and a testament to India’s status as a space power.
This achievement comes just days after a Russian lander faced a crash during a similar attempt.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attending a regional summit in South Africa, expressed his elation, stating, “This moment is unforgettable. It is phenomenal. This is a victory cry of a new India.”
As the spacecraft touched down, scientists, officials, and citizens across India erupted in celebration, marked by applause, cheers, and joyous dancing.
S. Somanath, chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), declared, “India is on the moon,” capturing the historic significance of the event.
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This successful landing is India’s second attempt, following the Chandrayaan-2 mission that deployed an orbiter in 2019, although its lander experienced a crash.
Chandrayaan-3, the current mission, is anticipated to operate for two weeks, conducting experiments, including a spectrometer analysis of the lunar surface’s mineral composition.
The successful landing bolsters India’s reputation for cost-efficient space engineering, with the Chandrayaan-3 mission executed at a budget of around $74 million, a fraction of the cost of producing the Hollywood space film “Gravity” in 2013.
The challenging terrain of the moon’s south pole poses a significant achievement for India, with its ice-rich region potentially providing resources like fuel, oxygen, and drinking water for future missions.
This landing also holds the potential to contribute to cumulative scientific data on lunar geology.
As India basks in this achievement, its ambitions continue to extend. The nation is preparing for a September launch to study the sun and is also working towards a human space flight, with anticipated readiness by 2024.
India becomes fourth country to touch down on Moon
With the successful landing on Wednesday, India now joins three other nations – the US, the former Soviet Union and China – who’ve successfully touched down on the lunar surface.
And they’re now ready to explore an area where no other spacecraft has been – the lunar south pole.
There’s growing scientific interest here. The craters in this region are permanently in shadow and contain frozen water.
This would be a crucial resource for future human exploration – Nasa’s Artemis mission, which is sending astronauts to the Moon, is targeting this region too.