India Lands First in Southern Polar Region
IndiGlobal Bureau
India has become the first country to ever reach the Southern Polar Region area of the moon with the successful landing on Wednesday. A lander named Vikram and a rover named Pragyan landed on the moon thus making India only the fourth country ever to land on the moon. P M Modi said, “This is an unprecedented moment,” and further added, “This is the moment for new, developing India. This is the moment for 1.4 billion” Indians.
What makes the historic landing even more special is the fact that the mission like previous ones has been accomplished at a frugal cost. The first Mars mission, Mangalyaan, successfully entered the planet’s orbit in 2014 and remained in communication with ISRO until the mission concluded in 2022 when the spacecraft lost power. It made India the first country to achieve Martian orbit on its first attempt, and demonstrated that the country could show scientific prowess even when resources are constrained: The mission’s budget of about $75 million was less than the $100 million budget of the Hollywood space film “Gravity.”
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFRbI-vpI84
S. Somanath, the director of Indian Space Research Organization, has described the current moment as an inflection point, as the country opens its space programs to private investors after half a century of state monopoly that made advances but at a “a shoestring budget mode of working.”
A large share of India’s space efforts in the coming years will focus on the moon. In addition to the scientific results of Chandrayaan-3, India is preparing a joint lunar exploration with Japan, in which India will provide the lander and Japan the launch vehicle and the rover. The robotic mission, known as LUPEX, is also intended for exploring the South Pole of the moon.
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFRbI-vpI84
India is preparing for the first astronaut mission to space, called Gaganyaan. Additionally, India is preparing for the Aditya L-1 mission, which plans to study the sun. While no date for the solar mission has been announced, the spacecraft is being integrated with the rocket, a sign that it may be almost ready for launch. ISRO officials have said that it will carry seven payloads to study the photosphere chromosphere and the outermost layers of the sun using electromagnetic and particle detectors.
Another mission is the collaborative NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, or NISAR, which will monitor changes in our planet’s land and ice surfaces from orbit. It is slated to launch from India next year.
The country will also launch a second Mars orbiter mission. The ISRO leadership who managed Chandrayaan-3 make clear the failure of their last moon landing attempt, in 2019, was a major driving force. “From the day we started rebuilding our spacecraft after Chandaryaan-2 experience, it has been breathe in breathe out Chandrayaan-3 for our team,” said Kalpana Kalahasti, the mission’s associate project director.
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFRbI-vpI84
