Why is the moon so important? Context on Chandrayaan 3

By Rudra Sekhri and Afreen Hossain

Whenever we think of moon landing, we think of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon. However, the race for the moon began much earlier.

The Soviet Union was the first country to send a spacecraft to the moon which was called Luna 2. It successfully landed on the moon. The country had not sent any astronauts to the moon at this time but it was the first country to reach the moon.

Watching the success of the Soviet Union’s space agency continue as the United States began to lag behind their rivals, John F. Kennedy gave a speech at Rice University, in which he promised the American people, and by extension the world, of getting a person to the moon before the end of the decade.

With the formation of NASA, a branch of the US government that saw the majority of all space-related matters, eventually also took on the responsibility of getting the first people to the moon. This is the iconic 1969 Apollo 11 landings, which saw Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin successfully land on the moon, making them the first people to walk on the moon.

As of now, there are only three countries that have made successful ‘soft landings’ on the moon, those being the United States, Russia (formerly the Soviet Union) and China.

And this was the failure in the Chandrayaan 2 mission. ISRO lost contact with the Vikram lander when it was just 2.1 kilometres above from the surface of the moon, and lander crashed into the surface of the moon. It was not a soft landing.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission provides an opportunity for India to demonstrate and enhance its technological capabilities in space exploration. If successfully, it will make India only the 4th country to have ever done a soft landing and the first country to successful conduct a soft landing near the South Pole of the moon.

Why is the south pole so important? Water.

There is no atmosphere on the moon to keep water vapour in place. The Moon lacks a significant atmosphere to retain water vapour. If significant sunlight reaches a particular part of the Moon's surface, then any water there would evaporate instantly. However, some craters are in permanent shadow, and it is in these craters that Chandrayaan 1, ISRO’s first mission to the moon, found traces of water.

After Chandrayaan 1, Chandrayaan 2 was the second lunar exploration project created by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). This was the first mission of India’s in which the spacecraft would attempt to land on the moon. It is made up of an Indian-developed lander, a lunar orbiter, and the Pragyan rover.?

The lander was given the name “Vikram”, after Dr. Vikram A Sarabhai, the father of Indian Space Program. The rover, called “Pragyan” meaning wisdom, was placed inside the lander. After the lander landed on the surface of the moon, the rover would come out of the lander and move on the moon to collect information. The spacecraft was launched on its mission to the Moon on 22 July 2019.

This mission was very important because soft landing is a very difficult task, and its success would be a very big achievement. Additionally, it was crucial because the presence of water would be a big help in our efforts to establish a human presence on the moon. Water from Earth would be challenging to transport. If there is water on the moon itself, it would be accessible to astronauts with less difficulty.

On September 6, 2019, at 20:08:03 UTC, Vikram started making its way towards the Moon. It was scheduled to surface at about 20:23 UTC. Around 2.1 kilometres above the surface, its trajectory began going off course, most likely due to a software error. Vikram's final vertical velocity was 58m/s at 330m above the surface, according to the last data gathered during ISRO's live-stream.

This is why Chandrayaan 3 is so important. Not only is it geopolitically strategic to showcase India's progress and technological prowess, but it's important scientifically speaking because it will fulfill the goals of the Chandrayaan 2 mission.