Just a few days after a Russian lander crashed on the moon, India has reported the successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3 on the lunar south pole—a region of our celestial satellite that has been mostly unexplored by humans. From Reuters:
Chandrayaan means "moon vehicle" in Hindi and Sanskrit. In 2019, ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 mission successfully deployed an orbiter but its lander crashed.
The Chandrayaan-3 is expected to remain functional for two weeks, running a series of experiments including a spectrometer analysis of the mineral composition of the lunar surface.
The moon rover will take a few hours or a day to come out of the spacecraft, Somanath told reporters, adding that the landing has given India confidence to extend its reach to possible voyages to Mars and Venus.
India is also planning to launch a mission in September to study the sun, Somanath said. A human space flight is also planned and, while no official date has been announced, preparations are likely to be ready by 2024.
India is the fourth Terran country to land on the moon, after Russia, USA, and China. Both Israel and Japan have recently launched landers as well, though they failed to land successfully.
India's Lander Touches Down on the Moon. Russia's Has Crashed [Ramin Skibba / Wired]
