24 August 2024. On Wednesday 6:03 PM, India made history by a successful landing on the southern pole of the moon. NASA’s expedition on the moon from 1969 to 1972 led scientists to believe that the moon surface was completely dry. The first lunar orbiter of India, named Chandrayaan-1, acquired some data verifying water’s presence.
Landing in the south pole is challenging due to the rugged landscape. A location with water would be a fantastic choice to send people to the moon. But since water is so heavy, it is both expensive and inconvenient to transport it from Earth.
Water is definitely crucial for human survival, and water molecules can be divided into hydrogen and oxygen. Air to breathe is made of oxygen, and hydrogen and oxygen can also be used as rocket fuel to go around the solar system or back to Earth.
Two spacecraft- a lander named Vikram and a rover named Pragyan, landed in the southern polar area of the moon. The two robots are part of the Chandrayaan-3 mission. Which made India the fourth ever country to successfully land on the moon surface after USA, China and the former USSR.
The Chandrayaan-3 is anticipated to stay operational for another two weeks while carrying out a number of experiments, including a spectrometer investigation of the lunar surface’s mineral makeup.
Bill Nelson, Administrator of NASA congratulated ISRO on Twitter, currently known as X.
On the Kremlin website Vladimir Putin congratulated India. This mission, which came less than a week after Russia’s Luna-25 mission failed, was India’s second attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon. As the spaceship reached the surface, viewers across the country prayed while fully engaged in their televisions as the spacecraft came to land.
Nationwide Intense Anticipation and Excitement in India
At Sikh Gurdwaras, Muslim mosques, and Hindu temples, prayers were said for the mission’s success. Schools organised live viewings of the moon landing and special rituals, while an official YouTube video of the occasion received tens of millions of views.
The PM, Narendra Modi was unable to witness the new beginning of India’s space journey in person, as he is currently attending the “BRICS summit 2024” in South Africa. Other recent events in India’s space history have seen the prime minister has been there in person at mission supervision for other major events, such as a successful orbit of Mars in 2014 and a failed moon landing in 2019, where he was photographed comforting the scientists and hugging the tearful ISRO chief.
Somanath, Chairman of ISRO, told reporters that it will take a few hours or a day for the moon rover to exit the spaceship and that the landing has given the country the self-assurance to broaden its scope and consider possible journeys to Mars and Venus.
The Indian operation was launched in the month of July and traveled towards the moon cautiously and slowly. However, Chandrayaan-3 outlasted its Russian rival, Luna-25, which launched 12 days earlier. Luna-25, which was intended to touch down on the moon on Monday near the Chandrayaan-3, crashed on Saturday due to an engine problem.
It speaks to the contrasting outcomes of the two countries’ space projects that India was able to surpass Russia, the former Soviet Union that launched the first satellite, man, and woman into space.
