India Successfully Lands Space Module on Moon's Dark Side
India has achieved a significant milestone by becoming the first country to land a space module on the dark side of the Moon. The "Vikram" module of the Chandrayaan-3 mission successfully touched down at the South Pole of Earth's satellite.
The historic event was broadcast live on the YouTube channel of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
This achievement makes India the fourth nation in the world, after the USSR, USA, and China, to successfully land a module on the Moon. Notably, India is the first to accomplish this feat on the Moon's South Pole.
It's worth mentioning that this accomplishment gains significance as a recent similar mission by Russia ended in failure. Russia's lunar project "Luna-25" suffered a catastrophic setback, marking a significant setback in space exploration. This places Russia behind in the "space race" for decades. The crash of "Luna-25", a project that was developed over the course of Vladimir Putin's presidency, symbolizes a glaring failure in the future of space exploration, which might take a "colonial system" development path where the one who claims a spot gets to keep it.
This means that the primary competition will now rest between the United States, China, and India. Russia, as a successor of the "space state," has ignominiously dropped out of the race, serving as a stark conclusion to the Putin era: a "total failure".
Against this backdrop of triumph, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while in South Africa, proposed the creation of a "consortium for space research" among BRICS countries to enhance space cooperation.
"Within its framework, we can conduct space research and meteorological observations for the benefit of the entire world," he stated.
Chandrayaan-3 represents India's third attempt to reach the Moon's poles. The first lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1, was launched in 2008 and conducted orbital studies of the Moon without a planned landing. The Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019 was only partially successful: its orbiter continues to revolve around the Moon, but the landing module crashed due to a technical issue with its braking system.
The Moon's South Pole has drawn significant interest from international space agencies due to the high likelihood of water ice presence, which could support resource extraction and sustain lunar bases.
Given the challenges faced during the Chandrayaan-2 mission, Sridhar Panicker Somanath, Director of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), emphasized the importance of the lessons learned. These invaluable insights have led to significant changes in the design of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, weighing 3,900 kg and costing $75 million. At the heart of this effort is the 1,500 kg Vikram lander, which includes a 26 kg rover.
It's worth noting that on Sunday, August 20th, Roscosmos reported the crash of the Russian lunar lander "Luna-25", which collided with the Moon's surface.
"Luna-25" held significant importance for Russia, as it marked the country's first lunar mission since the Soviet era. The previous lunar lander, "Luna-24", launched by the Soviet Union, successfully landed on the Moon in the summer of 1976 and even brought back samples of lunar regolith to Earth."