Posted on 08/23/2023 6:46:10 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
India just became part of an exclusive club. With the successful touchdown of its Vikram lander today, it is now just the 4th nation to soft-land a spacecraft on the moon.
This is a massive moment for India – and it bumps them up the space superpower list.
Landing on the Moon is far from easy – as Russia’s attempt this week highlighted – and many missions have failed, including India’s first attempt.
But it was second time lucky, and India now joins three other nations – the US, the former Soviet Union and China – who’ve successfully touched down on the lunar surface.
The entire mission was called Chandrayaan-3 which means “moon craft” in Sanskrit. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrate the achievement from South Africa where he is participating in the BRICS meeting.
“On this joyous occasion…I would like to address all the people of the world,” he said. “India’s successful moon mission is not just India’s alone. This is a year in which the world is witnessing India’s G20 presidency. Our approach of one Earth, one family, one future is resonating across the globe.
“This human-centric approach that we present and we represent has been welcome universally. Our moon mission is also based on the same human-centric approach,” Modi added. “Therefore, this success belongs to all of humanity, and it will help moon missions by other countries in the future.”
NASA administrator Bill Nelson congratulated India’s team at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Congratulations @isro on your successful Chandrayaan-3 lunar South Pole landing! And congratulations to #India on being the 4th country to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon. We’re glad to be your partner on this mission!
https://t.co/UJArS7gsTv— Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) August 23, 2023
NASA is a partner in the mission because India is using NASA deep space relay network to communicate with the spacecraft. Once the dust settles the next part of the mission will be releasing a small 6-wheel rover called Pragyaan.
It will then begin the Moon walk – moving at a speed of 1cm per second, it will roam around the rocks and craters, gathering crucial data and images.
Pragyaan will only communicate with the lander which will send the information to the orbiter from Chandrayaan-2 – which is still circling the Moon – to pass it on to the Earth for analysis.
The entire mission is scheduled to last two weeks, starting with sunrise at the landing site today and ending when the sun sets there two weeks from now. At that point the battery powered lander will be in the dark for two weeks and unable to operate. The BBC reports it’s unknown if the lander will come back to life when the sun rises again a month from now.
In addition to the political and PR benefits, this mission does have real scientific value. India is the first nation to land near the moon’s south pole which scans have indicated is the area of the moon most likely to have ice. It’s thought that a supply of water would be significant for future crewed missions to the moon as it could be turned into drinking water or even rocket fuel.
The NY Times notes that there are probably three more lunar missions coming this year alone.
The next mission will launch on Friday, Aug. 26. It’s called Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, and comes from Japan’s space agency, JAXA. SLIM aims to test the country’s lunar landing technologies; JAXA has yet to announce a landing date for the mission…
Two American companies are also vying to set down on the lunar surface later this year. They are participants in a program called Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, in which NASA pays private businesses to send experiments to the surface of the moon.
A lander from the first company, Intuitive Machines, of Houston, could launch as early as Nov. 15 on a SpaceX rocket. It will head to the lunar south polar region.
The other lander built by Astrobotic Technology and had a setback in April (see below) but is still on track for a launch this year.
Outside of the test rig/ stand. Test article is inside (you can’t see it). Hydrogen leak. H2 accumulated inside the rig. Found an ignition source. Burned fast. Over pressure caved in our forward dome and damaged the rig. pic.twitter.com/0d0KpI1ggj
— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) April 13, 2023
Finally, here’s the livestream of the landing. This shows the final descent from 1 kilometer above the surface to the landing (watch the altitude indicator on the far right). The lander actually hovered at 150 meters to ensure there were no obstacles directly below it. Then everyone goes crazy when it touches down. Reportedly, there were around 8 million people watching this livestream as it happened (which may be a record). That doesn’t include millions more who were watching it live on television. Congratulations, India.
Update: Pragyaan, the little rover, has been deployed.
CHANDRAYAAN 3 ROVER GETTING DEPLOYED🇮🇳!!!!
This is the best day of my life😭😭😭
#Chandrayaan3 #Chandrayaan3Landing #isro pic.twitter.com/vXh7qsXRds— RocketGyan (@rocketgyan) August 23, 2023
Also this is pretty great. Reaction from people in the street to the initial landing.
Public at Surat diamond market witnessing historic #Chandrayaan3 landing
pic.twitter.com/E1TID2bkqp— Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) August 23, 2023
Reuters just posted this.
Footage from different Indian cities showed people dancing, waving Indian flags, setting off firecrackers and playing drums after the country's successful south pole lunar landing
https://t.co/8C5oyI3H8y #Chandrayaan3 pic.twitter.com/ZlXT9FBqKb— Reuters (@Reuters) August 23, 2023
Wait until they release the NEW Tikka Masala Tang!
good on them.
Other than satisfying curiosity, beating the odds, and enhancing national pride, what are the benefits?
What a stupid line of questioning.
So after the first heart transplant there was no point in doing any more?
Congrats to India. Now may Modi and the anti-Christians in the ruling BJP party face hellfire.
I wonder why an ancient extinct language needed a word that means "moon craft?"
RE: Other than satisfying curiosity, beating the odds, and enhancing national pride, what are the benefits?
We could ask the same of our Apollo Missions.
One paragrpah in the article gives a hint of what they intend to discover:
“In addition to the political and PR benefits, this mission does have real scientific value. India is the first nation to land near the moon’s south pole which scans have indicated is the area of the moon most likely to have ice. It’s thought that a supply of water would be significant for future crewed missions to the moon as it could be turned into drinking water or even rocket fuel.”
What a stupid argument, equivocating heart transplants with moon exploration. Try answering the question as regards benefits of moon exploration. If heart transplants are somehow involved, I would be happy to adjust my outlook.
That falls under the category of “satisfying curiousity.” Definitely a benefit, but it sure as heck won’t go much farther than that.
As I turn to my suffering neighbor and say, “We now know more about the poles of the Moon than we ever have! May I bring you a glass of water from there?”
RE: Definitely a benefit, but it sure as heck won’t go much farther than that.
What benefit does our Space Program give us? Like the USA, India started with UNMANNED explorers. Their long term goal will be manned explorers too.
The answer to questions about the benefits of our space program is the same answer to the question any Indian has regarding their space program.
I can think of several off the top of my head:
* New technologies that can be utilized in other industries and society
* Many spin-off technologies that have come out of the space exploration program, there have been notable advancements in the fields of health and medicine, transportation, public safety, consumer goods, energy and environment, information technology, and industrial productivity.
* Improved knowledge of space and the origin of the universe
I question how much of that could come about without the risks and expense. My attitude toward space exploration is decidedly jaundiced, but I am not so obtuse as to discard genuine benefits other than those I stated. What, specifically, do we enjoy today as fruits of space exploration what we could not have without it?
That’s a big question. I am not going to press you for an answer or call you names if your thoughts differ. The benefits I’ve already mentioned are good. But we ought to excercise some prudence in weighing whether they are worth the price. No?
I must have missed it. Who were 2 and 3?
1. USA
2.
3.
4. India
Were any of these missions (other than the US's) manned?
If so, how did they make it through the Van Allen radiation belts?
USSR and China both had unmanned landings.
Old joke:
And aide comes into the Oval Office.
“Mr. President, I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?”
“Give me the bas news first.”
“OK. The Chinese have landed on the Moon.”
“Hmm. Tah tis bad. What’s hte good news?”
“All of them”
They should have called that thing Spongebob Moonpants.
They should have called that thing Spongebob Moonpants.
India, since at least 2009, has refused USA Gov aid. The USA still sends $85 million.
Most of the aid by Americans to India is in the form of loan. Some is from NGO.
It’s a step toward some of us getting off this rock. Water in decent quantity makes a colony practical, eventually even profitable, and then take the next step or steps. If we stay stuck here, eventually either ourselves or Mo’ Nature will erase us. Spread around the solar system (Earth’s Moon, Mars, some moons of the gas giants may be practical) we have a shot to go on much longer.
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