On Wednesday, India took a significant step toward making history as it prepares to become the first nation to land a spacecraft on the Moon’s south pole with its Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission, overcoming previous setbacks and employing a cost-efficient program.
India readied Wednesday, preparing to become the first nation to land a spacecraft on the Moon’s south pole, days after a Russian probe crashed in the same region.
The world’s most populous nation is closing in on milestones set by global space powers such as the United States and Russia, conducting many of its missions at much-lower price tags.
Chandrayaan-3, which means “Mooncraft” in Sanskrit, is scheduled to touch down shortly after 6:00 pm India time (1230 GMT) near the little-explored lunar south pole.
A previous Indian effort failed in 2019, but former K. Sivan, a former head of the country’s space agency, said the latest photos from the lander indicated that the voyage’s final leg would succeed.
Sivan added that the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) had made corrections after the failure four years ago when scientists lost contact with that lunar module moments before its slated landing.
The mission has captivated public attention since launching nearly six weeks ago in front of thousands of cheering spectators.
Chandrayaan-3 took much longer to reach the Moon than the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s, which arrived in a few days.
India is using rockets much less powerful than the ones the United States used back then, meaning the probe had to orbit the Earth several times to gain speed before embarking on its month-long journey.
The lander, Vikram, which means “valor” in Sanskrit, detached from its propulsion module last week and has been sending images of the Moon’s surface since entering lunar orbit on August 5th.
Once it lands, a solar-powered rover will explore the surface and transmit data to Earth over its two-week lifespan.
A day ahead of the landing, the ISRO said the landing was proceeding on schedule, describing it as “smooth sailing.”
India has comparatively low-budget space program has grown considerably in size and momentum since it first sent a probe to orbit the Moon in 2008.
The latest mission has a price tag of $74.6 million, far lower than other countries, and a testament to India’s frugal space engineering.
Experts say India can keep costs low by copying and adapting existing technology, thanks to an abundance of highly skilled engineers who earn a fraction of their foreign counterparts’ wages.
Sivan, the former ISRO chief, said India’s efforts to explore the relatively unmapped lunar south pole would make a “very, very important” contribution to scientific knowledge.
Only Russia, the United States, and China have previously achieved controlled landings on the Moon.
If successful, it would have beaten Chandrayaan-3 by a matter of days to become the first mission from any nation to make a controlled landing around the south pole.
Miroslava Salazar, with AFP
