Posted on 08/23/2023 8:19:10 AM PDT by NorthMountain
Chandrayaan-3, the latest iteration of India’s ambitious mission to the moon, has successfully landed on the lunar surface — making history after its predecessor failed in 2019.
The landing, which took place at the targeted time of 5:34am PT (6:04pm IST) on Wednesday over a month after the spacecraft’s launch, has made India the fourth nation globally to make a soft landing on the moon, after the former Soviet Union, the U.S. and China, and the first country to land on the lunar south pole, which remains an unexplored area that is anticipated to aid in the understanding of the moon’s atmosphere and pave the way for future space exploration programs.
Earlier this month, Russia attempted to take the achievement from India by launching Luna-25, which was due to make a soft landing on the south pole before India’s Chandrayaan-3. However, the Russian spacecraft crashed into the moon on Saturday after losing contact with Roscosmos, the country’s space agency.
India’s space agency, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), launched the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft through its “Launch Vehicle Mark-III” vehicle on July 14. The launch happened from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in South India’s Sriharikota island.
“Chandrayaan-3 is a result of the work done by thousands of scientists, engineers, our staff and industries and support teams across ISRO and other places, other institutions,” said ISRO chairman S. Somanath while addressing the audience at the space agency’s mission operation complex in Bengaluru after the successful landing.
Chandrayaan-3, the third version of India’s Chandrayaan mission (“moon vehicle” in Sanskrit), aims to demonstrate safe landing and roving on the moon’s surface and conduct on-site scientific experiments. The spacecraft, developed with a budget of less than $75 million, comprises a propulsion module, lander and a rover that collectively carry seven scientific instruments.
To overcome the problems encountered by its predecessor, the lander on the Chandrayaan-3 mission includes improved sensors, software and propulsion systems. ISRO also carried out a number of simulations and additional testing to ensure a higher degree of ruggedness in the lander to achieve a successful landing.
The lander will conduct experiments on seismic vibrations, near-surface plasma, lunar temperature, thermal conductivity, elemental composition, and spectral signatures of Earth.
The U.S. is preparing to launch a crew mission to the lunar south pole, called Artemis III, as soon as 2025. The insights gained from the Chandrayaan-3 mission in India will aid in comprehending the surface before the human landing.
Unlike the lander, the rover of the Chandrayaan-3 is identical to that of the Chandrayaan-2. The mission life of the lander and rover will be of one lunar day — equivalent to 14 days on Earth.
Chandrayaan-3 comes over 14 years after India launched its first moon landing mission in 2008, which found evidence of water molecules in the lunar atmosphere.
Although the lander-rover of Chandrayaan-2 crashed during touchdown, its orbiter is still in orbit and continuing its study of the moon. The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter was instrumental in locating the landing spot for the Chandrayaan-3 lander and will continue to assist in sending signals to Earth for communication with the lander.
“Of course, this is not the work of us alone. This is the work of a generation of ISRO leadership and ISRO scientists. And this is a journey we started with Chandrayaan-1 and continued with Chandrayaan-2, and Chandrayaan-2 craft is still working and doing a lot of communication work with us. And all the teams that contributed to building Chandrayaan-1 and Chandrayaan-2 should be remembered and thanked while we celebrate Chandrayaan-3,” Somanath said.
Over the past few years, India has developed a strong interest in space exploration. With the help of over a hundred space tech startups, the South Asian nation has made significant progress in developing solutions such as launch vehicles, satellites, and hyperspectral earth imaging. New Delhi recently introduced a space policy to facilitate collaboration between private players and government bodies.
“India’s successful moon mission is not just India’s alone,” said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Our approach of one Earth, one family, one future is resonating across the globe. This human-centric approach that we present and that we represent has been welcomed universally. Our moon mission is also based on the same human-centric approach. Therefore, this success belongs to all of humanity, and it will help moon missions by other countries in the future. I’m confident that all countries in the world, including those from the global south, are capable of achieving such feats. We can all aspire for the moon and beyond.”
ISRO has also been working on a list of missions other than Chandrayaan-3. These include the long-planned human space flight mission Gaganyaan and the solar observatory project Aditya L1 to probe the sun.
“We applaud ISRO on the successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3, which shows India’s strong spirit of space exploration and our prowess in the space domain,” said General Lt. Gen. AK Bhatt, director of industry body Indian Space Association, in a prepared statement. “This signifies these moon landings will also further propel our actions towards creating a flourishing lunar economy and will encourage broader celestial exploration from Mars and beyond. An important step forward in space exploration and commercialization will be with the inclusion of more private players and our growing space-tech startups in the future missions to make India a leader in the global space economy.”
In June, India signed NASA’s Artemis Accords to partner with participating nations on space exploration. NASA is also set to provide advanced training to Indian astronauts at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and send them to the International Space Station next year. Further, ISRO and NASA are also working closely to launch a low-Earth observatory (LEO) in 2024 to map the entire planet in 12 days and offer consistent data for analyzing alterations in Earth’s ecosystems, ice mass, vegetation biomass, sea level, and natural disasters and hazards.
Will their spacesuits have a flap so they can take a poop on the lunar surface?
Good point.
I agree. And ditto for Israel, which also landed a craft on the moon.
“ I read on this particular mission NASA and the ESA provided key technical support”
Not ‘tech support’ but for routing communications through a global network of antennas. Always need a line of sight path to the vehicle to send/receive data. This applies to all deep space missions from whichever country.
Musk tweeted today that it cost India less to land a craft on the moon (75m) than to shoot the movie Interstellar (165m)
No bet. When you have a pool of 1 billion people, the top 1% is still 10 million people.
It's no wonder why there are so many Indian doctors and engineers in the U.S. There's a very large number of bright people in India in the first place.
—”If I have to ride on a packed train, I’m grumpy for half the day”
Worse is when some loudmouth is yapping away, as I attempt to read.
Rumor had it that many of the loudmouth phones were not turned on!
I do not recall any Indian loudmouths and Chicago’s suburbs have many from India.
China is the same, there might be about 300 million Chinese (roughly the US population) who live in modern conditions, the rest still pretty much live like they did a hundred years ago.
Man does not live by bread alone.
Something like this can do wonders to the pride and confidence of a nation’s people, even the poorest among them.
And it doesn’t have to be either or. They’ve made tremendous strides in their infrastructure and standard of living.
Over the past 25 years their GDP has grown an astounding 700%! And now they have the fifth largest GDP and third largest PPP.
This morning I got on one train and a guy was listening to a video with police sirens on his phone, the same video, over and over and over. So I got off at the next stop and moved to the next car. And on the next car was an African lady (actually from Africa) yapping away in Nigerian to someone on her phone :)
Maybe you’re right. Maybe the country that chooses to fly to the moon before proper sanitation will win out. Who am I to say? I can’t see the future.
The reason why no one has been able to send a monkey up to the moon is because the Van Allen Belts would essentially microwave them to death.
Moon vehicle is a stupid name for a space mission. It should be something with cultural relevance.
I always try to get on the “quiet car” if one is provided.
It’s both sad and funny that you actually believe that.
I kinda feel sorry for you.
"Moon vehicle" is only one possible rendition into English; another might be "Lunar Chariot."
Our first moon lander was named "Thing or person that measures and establishes points of reference on the land." Not very "culturally relevant," is it?
Oh, that's right, it was called "Surveyor."
Regards,
“Who am I to say? I can’t see the future.”
You are correct about your myopic condition.
Back in the days of our moon program, your brethrens (maybe you yourself) were decrying the billions spent on the space program while there were still poor people not getting enough to eat.
“Back in the days of our moon program, your brethrens (maybe you yourself) were decrying the billions spent on the space program while there were still poor people not getting enough to eat.”
Oooh, guilt by association, with people I never associated with, for saying things that I haven’t said. Can you make a more dishonest argument? Or is that the best you got?
so India is able to do what Russia can’t
seems every week brings another embarrassment for Vlady ... frontlines getting hammered by HIMARS, Moscow getting attacked by drones, Luna-25 crashing, now this ...
guess Russia is not only a former superpower, it’s a former space-power
humiliating
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