india just made history by becoming the first country to successfully land a spacecraft very close to the south pole of the moon. It has been a very close race with Russia, as their respective space agencies had sent their ships almost on par. ROSCOSMOS, the Russian space agency, was somewhat ahead, but its failed moon landing has cleared the way for India, which has seized the opportunity with its Chandrayaan-3 mission.
After the failure of Chandrayaan-2 in September 2019, this time the moon landing has been successful. The maneuver has lasted several days, as the ship has been in lunar orbit from August 5. Since then, it has fired up an additional engine to move into a more closed loop, thus allowing the lander, Vikram, to separate from the propulsion module. Then, last weekend, she maneuvered into an elliptical orbit to come close 25 km from the surface of the Moon. Only the last step remained, done today.
with the exhaustive monitoring of Chandrayaan-3 scientists and the cameras that searched for dangers on the surface in real time, it has been possible to carry out a safe monitored descent, on a plain without craters or rocks that would hinder the moon landing. It has been a big step for India’s space race, but this has only just begun. The mission still has a lot of work ahead of it.
Why has India made history?
so far only United States, Soviet Union and China they had managed to land probes on the Moon. But they had all done it in the area closest to the north pole of the satellite. Therefore, the south pole is a totally unexplored region so far.
Yes, there have been missions aimed at studying it from lunar orbit. It is the case of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. In fact, thanks to it, scientists have data that have made it necessary to search for a landing in this region of the Moon.
There are many more shaded areas than in the northern part, so it is more to be expected that there will be craters with ice water, something that could make it easier for a lunar base to be built there in the future. Also, the south pole lies on the edge of a massive impact crater. It is one of the oldest in the solar system, so it could contain a lot of information about its origins.
There are plenty of reasons to try to land in this region of the Moon. But, until the arrival of Chandrayaan-3, no country had succeeded. This is quite an achievement by India, a country which, with its mission orbiter Chandrayaan-1was the first country to announce the possible presence of frozen water on the satellite.
The future of Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon
The first thing Chandrayaan-3 will do is free Pragyana small rover that will analyze the chemistry of the Lunar surface.
But, in addition, the ship carries with it a series of instruments, which will be in charge of taking measurements of thermal conductivity and temperature, as well as two probesone to measure the density of the plasma and another capable of analyze seismic activity.
All this will help us to know much better what is under the south pole of the Moon, to have an idea of how our planetary system was born and, perhaps, to finally find that precious frozen water that is suspected of hiding in the shadows. .