India and Russia crashed on the moon
Chandrayaan-3: A Space Mission to Land a Robotic Landing Mission Near the Lunar South Pole and Possible An Israeli Non-Profitor
India made history on Wednesday by landing its spaceship near the lunar south pole, a location that scientists believe holds vital reserves of frozen water and could be the fourth country to land a moon landing.
Excited and anxious, people across India, home to the world’s largest population, crowded around televisions in offices, shops, restaurants and homes. Thousands prayed Tuesday for the success of the mission with oil lamps on the river banks, temples and religious places, including the holy city of Varanasi in northern India.
Chandrayaan is a word in Hindi. In addition to the propulsion module that pushed the spacecraft into orbit around the moon, the landing module consists of the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover that will attempt to set down on the lunar surface in the moon’s south polar region. The mission is robotic and there are no astronauts aboard.
Many countries and private companies are interested in the south pole region because permanently shadowed craters may hold frozen water that could help future astronaut missions.
The six-wheeled lander and rover module of Chandrayaan-3 is configured with payloads that would provide data to the scientific community on the properties of lunar soil and rocks, including chemical and elemental compositions.
India’s previous attempt to land a robotic vehicle near the south pole ended in failure. It lost contact with its landers when it fell to the ground to deploy a rover to search for signs of water. The crash is believed to have been the result of a software glitch.
The $140-million mission in 2019 is intended to study permanently shadowed moon craters, which are believed to contain water deposits.
Russia’s failed attempt increased the anticipation for a successful landing, as China reached for new landmarks in space. China launched a crew for the space station in May and will attempt to have astronauts on the moon by the end of the decade. Relations between India and China have plunged since deadly border clashes in 2020.
Numerous countries and private companies are racing to successfully land a spacecraft on the lunar surface. In April, a Japanese company’s spacecraft apparently crashed while attempting to land on the moon. An Israeli nonprofit tried to achieve a similar feat in 2019, but its spacecraft was destroyed on impact.
Two US companies and Japan are vying to be the first to land a human on the moon by the end of the year. In the future, NASA intends to land astronauts at the lunar south pole and take advantage of the frozen water in the craters.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISAR) announces the lunar landing of the Luna-25 lander on Aug. 23 at 8:14 am Eastern time
The country is proud of its space program, as well as the growing number of commercial space start-ups. India’s recent efforts in space exploration also closely mirror the country’s diplomatic push as an ambitious power on the rise.
The landers is in a position to land on the moon as small as 15 miles above the surface. On Wednesday at around 8:14 a.m. Eastern time, ISRO says the spacecraft will fire its engines to bring itself out of orbit and begin a descent to the surface. The engines will help it achieve a soft landing.
The nation’s space program, the Indian Space Research Organization, will provide a livestream from the mission control room in Bengaluru. You can watch it on ISRO’s YouTube channel or website starting at 7:50 a.m. It’s Eastern.
The Aug. 23 landing was selected because it is the day when the sun will rise at the landing site. The mission will end in a couple of weeks when the sun sets. The solar- powered landers and rovers will use a variety of instruments on the surface to make thermal, seismic and mineralogical measurements.
Russia’s Luna-25 lander was not so lucky. The craft appeared to have crashed on August 20 while preparing to land the next day. The plan was to deploy Luna 25 to investigate the properties of the regolith and the pockets of water ice at the impact crater.
During the power descent phase, the craft slowed down from 1,680 to 358 meters per second and its altitude dropped from 30 to 7.4 kilometers. During the following altitude hold phase, for 10 seconds the craft turned its altimeters towards the moon’s surface to take a reading of how far it was from the regolith. The fine braking phrase ran for more than an hour as the altitude fell to 800 meters.
The vertical descent phase began around 8:29 am Eastern time, and the craft began its approach to the lunar surface, turning to orient its four legs towards the landing site. It briefly hovered 150 meters above the surface as the craft’s sensors took readings of the safety of the landing site and re-targeted accordingly. The people in the mission control headquarters in Bengaluru cheered when it set down on regolith. India is on the moon, exclaimed Vikram Sarabhai. Sarabhai then asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was watching the telecast remotely, to speak. I would like to offer my greetings to all of the people of the world and all of the people of the region. Modi said during the address that India’s successful moon mission was not just India’s alone. The success is the property of all humans and will help moon missions in the future. I’m confident that all countries in the world, including those from the global south, are capable of achieving such things. We can all aspire for the moon and beyond.”
