Just a few days after Russia’s probe crashed due to failed maneuvers, India became the world’s fourth country to make a soft landing on the Moon, following the US, China and the former Soviet Union — and the first to land near the lunar south pole.

The mission includes a lander and a rover that will study the lunar soil (called regolith) for the next two weeks. To make matters even more spectacular, the entire mission cost USD$75 million — less than the transfer cost of some football or basketball players.

Chandrayaan-3 was launched on 14 July 2023. The spacecraft entered the moon’s orbit less than three weeks later, and the lander touched down in the lunar south pole region on 23 August 2023.

“India is on the moon,” Sreedhara Panicker Somanath, the chair of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), announced as the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft’s Vikram lander touched down on the south pole. The landing marks the emergence of India as a space power, with the government increasing investment in private space launches.

People celebrated across the country as the spacecraft approached territory that scientists believe may hold reserves of frozen water and precious elements.

Narendra Modi, India’s Prime Minister, hailed the mission but also used it in his current political quests “this is a victory cry of a new India,” waving a flag as he followed the landing from South Africa, where he’s attending the BRICS summit. BRICS is a grouping of the world economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and the group is looking to expand.

“India’s successful moon mission is not just India’s alone,” said Modi, during a speech after the landing “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 things”

A successful landing

But regardless of political machinations, the scientific accomplishment is huge.

No other country has managed to send a lander to the South Pole of the moon. The lunar South Pole region is particularly interesting because there’s so much ice there.

Data collected by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests that water ice is present in some of the large craters at the Moon’s south pole. Water exists only as solid or vapor on the Moon due to the lack of gravity to hold an atmosphere. Analyzing it could help scientists to better understand the history of water in our solar system.

These ice deposits are concentrated around shadowed craters and could possibly be ancient, holding clues to the early insights of the moon and the Earth. This ice could also serve as a valuable water deposit for a potential human mission.

But landing on the south pole is a challenging undertaking. The mountainous terrain and unpredictable lighting conditions that preserve ice make for a difficult landing. This is how tricky the landing was:

A rover on the moon

The mission has three main objectives:

1. Getting a lander to land safely on the surface of the Moon.
2. Driving the rover on the Moon.
3. Using the lander’s and the rover’s technological abilities to study the surface of the moon.

Chandrayaan-3, which means “moon craft” in Sanskrit, took off from Sriharikota in southern India on 14 July. It took much longer to reach the Moon than the Apollo missions in the 1960 and 1970s, which arrived in days. This is because India used rockets that are much less powerful than the ones used by the US back then.

This was a practical decision. In fact, many aspects of the mission were designed with cost in mind, emphasizing affordability. If space missions can be made more affordable, we could have more countries deploying more missions — another reason why the Indian mission to the moon is so impactful.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
Updates:

The communication link is established between the Ch-3 Lander and MOX-ISTRAC, Bengaluru.

Here are the images from the Lander Horizontal Velocity Camera taken during the descent. #Chandrayaan_3#Ch3 pic.twitter.com/ctjpxZmbom

— ISRO (@isro) August 23, 2023

The rover, called Pragyaan, the Sanskrit word for wisdom, has already rolled out the lander and onto the lunar surface. It was created to take pictures, with the first ones already shared by ISRO, do experiments and investigate the presence of water ice. If found, it could allow future crew missions to use it to extract oxygen and fuel.

Pragyaan moves at a speed of one centimeter per second. With each step, it leaves on the Moon’s surface the imprint of ISRO’s logo embossed on its six wheels. The landing matched with the start of a lunar day – a day on the Moon equals four weeks on Earth. This means the lander and rover will have 14 days of sunlight before they stop working.

In its two weeks of activity, the rover will use a spectrometer to derive the chemical and mineralogical composition of the lunar surface, and a spectroscope that will determine how much of specific chemical elements there are (Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, Fe) in lunar soil and rocks around the lunar landing site.

The lander also has a scientific payload. It will measure the thermal conductivity and temperature of the lunar surface, as well as the seismicity around the landing site.

A race to the Moon

In the greater scheme of things, the mission is part of a new type of space race revolving around the moon.

Russia’s craft had also been scheduled to land on the south pole this week but it spun out of control and crashed. India had attempted to land in 2019 in the same area now targeted by Chandrayaan-3 but it previously failed to do so.

The US and China also have missions to land on the south pole. NASA is working for a return to the Moon’s surface with the Artemis II mission next year. Astronauts will orbit the moon ahead of a planned landing in 2025. China also plans to land astronauts on the moon before 2030, including a short stay there and a human-robotic exploration.

Until now, the moon had been largely neglected for decades, with NASA achieving its last successful landing in 1976. Only China successfully landed spacecraft on the Moon over the past decade, with the missions Chang’e 3, 4, and 5 in 2013, 2019, and 2020. Russia tried to restart its lunar program but this proved difficult due to funding.

The success of Chandrayaan-3 doesn’t merely herald a new chapter for India’s space endeavors; it echoes the shifting dynamics of exploration in the solar system. The mission sends an unmistakable message: the Moon, once considered the playground of a privileged few nations, is now within reach of emerging space powers. By landing near the lunar south pole, India has not just raised its own stakes in the so-called ‘new space race,’ but has also set a precedent for future missions by other nations.

Costing just $90 million, India has demonstrated that the barriers to entry into deep-space exploration are slowly eroding. With its latest moon landing, India places itself firmly on the cosmic map, sharing the stage with the US, China, and Russia.

And as we look forward to more missions, from more countries, heading to the Moon and beyond, Chandrayaan-3 stands as a testament to what can be achieved when science, ingenuity, and a touch of audacity come together. A new era of lunar exploration has just begun, and it’s anyone’s game.

In these new times, the sky is not the limit—it’s just the beginning.