India successfully landed a craft on the moon on Wednesday. The lander Vikram (Courage) and the trolley Pragyan (Wisdom) landed on the surface around 2:34 PM Dutch time. “India is on the moon,” exclaimed flight control. That was echoed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who followed the landing.
The lunar lander Vikram, which means “courage” in Sanskrit, successfully touched down on the lunar surface on Wednesday afternoon. This makes India only the fourth country, after the United States, the Soviet Union and China, to have made such a soft moon landing. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi followed the landing via an online connection from South Africa, where he is attending the BRICS summit.
The chance of success was already estimated high in advance. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) confirmed that the mission was on schedule. This was also confirmed by the last photos that the spacecraft sent.
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Ice and water
Vikram has landed at the south pole of the moon. That is the ‘back side’ of the moon for us. Not much is known about that side of the moon. This region has never been explored before. There has been a lot of interest in the south pole of the moon lately because scientists believe it contains ice and water. The discovery of ice and water on the moon could be interesting for life on the moon, but could also contribute to research for missions to Mars.
After arriving on the moon, a small rover named Pragyan, which means ‘wisdom’, will be sent out. The two robots will then each study their environment. Although that will be short-lived. The rovers will only be active for two weeks.
Lower budget
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, meaning “lunar craft,” was launched on July 14 and successfully entered lunar orbit on August 5. On August 17, the lander was able to separate from the propulsion module and finally try to land on Wednesday. So the Indian mission has been going on for almost six weeks.
That is much longer than the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s. Then the American astronauts arrived on the moon in just a few days. That’s because the Indians use much less powerful missiles than the Americans. The Indian rocket also first circled the earth several times to gather enough power to continue the journey to the moon.
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The price tag of this mission works out to $74.6 million. A significantly lower budget than other countries. Experts say India can keep costs down for its space program by copying existing technology and having it modified by its own engineers, who earn a fraction of their foreign counterparts.
Not the first try
As the name of the current mission implies, it is not India’s first trip to the moon. Chandrayaan-1 sent a lunar probe into space in 2008. In July 2019, Chandrayaan-2 was sent to the moon, but that mission was only partially successful. That orbiter is still in orbit around the moon and still studying the moon. But the Indians then failed to put a rover on the moon. That orbiter could also come in handy now, because Vikram could communicate with Chandrayaan-2.
The third Indian attempt now comes just days after the Russians also attempted to land at the moon’s south pole. Last weekend, the lunar lander Luna-25 crashed into the moon and was destroyed. An incident occurred before landing that cut communications and caused the first Russian mission to the moon in nearly half a century to fail.