India’s Chandrayaan-3 Touches Down on Moon’s South Pole
After a thrilling 40-day journey from the Sathish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, Chandrayaan-3, India’s ambitious lunar mission, has landed on the moon’s south pole.
The Vikram lander, which met with a mishap during the Chandrayaan-2 mission, has now successfully reached its target on the lunar surface on the South pole.
The successful landing has not just demonstrated the prowess of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) but also placed India among the top 4 nations capable of achieving a soft lunar landing. Until now, only Russia, China, and the United States held this esteemed accomplishment.
ISRO confirmed the landing and mentioned their plan to activate Chandrayaan-3’s automatic landing sequence, employing a specialized algorithm for precise touchdown.
The spacecraft is slated to remain operational for two weeks, undertaking various experiments. One significant task is the spectrometer analysis, which aims to understand the mineral composition of the moon’s surface.
SpaceTec Partners’ Managing Director, Carla Filotico, emphasized the importance of this mission, noting that landing on the moon’s south pole could provide insights into the presence of water ice. This data is crucial for advancing our understanding of the moon’s geology.
The primary mission objective is to showcase ISRO‘s proficiency in achieving a controlled landing on the moon. Notably, an attempt for a similar landing with Chandrayaan-2 in 2019 was unsuccessful.
In a notable event coinciding with Chandrayaan-3’s journey, Russia’s space agency also targeted the moon’s south pole region.
India’s space legacy traces back to visionary Vikram Sarabhai, after whom the Vikram lander is named. In the upcoming days, Chandrayaan-3‘s rover will perform an on-site chemical analysis of the lunar surface, continuing India’s exploration of our celestial neighbor.
