Shaheer Ahmed
India, the most populous country in the world, made history on Wednesday when it became the first country to successfully land a craft close to the Moon’s south pole. At 6:04 PM India time (12:34 PM GMT), the unmanned Chandrayaan-3, whose name translates to “Mooncraft” in Sanskrit, touched down.
Mission control personnel erupted in jubilation and embraced their coworkers. After a 40-day trip that began at the Sathish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota and a history of space crashes, Chandrayaan-3 finally made it to the moon.
The Vikram lander, which collided with the moon’s surface during earlier Chandrayaan missions, has now arrived to the south pole of the moon.
Following its landing, Chandrayaan-3 will conduct a number of experiments, including a spectrometer examination of the mineral composition of the lunar surface. Chandrayaan-3 is anticipated to continue operating for two weeks.
“India could investigate whether there is water ice on the moon by landing in the south pole of the moon. Carla Filotico, a partner and managing director of consultancy SpaceTec Partners, said that this is crucial for accumulating data and scientific knowledge about the geology of the moon.
Chandraayan-3
Compared to the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s, which arrived on the Moon in a matter of days, Chandrayaan-3 took a lot longer to get there.
India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission crashed on the lunar surface during a failed attempt to land it close to the south pole in 2019.
Days after the Russian space agency attempted to land there, the Chandrayaan-3 mission was launched after the last space crash and was successful in reaching the moon.
The primary objective of the mission is to show that the Indian space agency is capable of performing a soft lunar landing.
The Sanskrit name for the lander, Vikram, which means “valour” in English, allowed it to separate from its propulsion module last week. Since it entered lunar orbit on August 5, Vikram has been sending pictures of the Moon’s surface.
After Vikram has touched down, a solar-powered rover will investigate the surface and send data back to Earth over the course of two weeks.
While it is moving, the Chandrayaan-3 Rover will analyse the chemical composition of the lunar surface. The Rover was launched by the Vikram lander, followed by a gentle landing at the south pole of the moon.
India Moon Landing
By carrying out many of its missions at considerably lower costs than other major space powers like the United States and Russia, India is rapidly catching up to their benchmarks. Only China, the United States, and Russia have successfully made controlled moon landings in the past.
It has joined a restricted group of countries that have successfully made a soft landing on the moon. Russia, China, and the United States were the only members of the club prior to Chandrayaan’s mission.
K. Sivan, a former head of ISRO, told AFP that India’s exploration of the lunar south pole would add “very, very important” knowledge to the scientific community.
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