India's latest lunar probe, Chandrayann-3, made a soft landing at 8:34 am ET Wednesday on the Moon's south pole. This success comes just days after Russia's lunar probe crashed attempting a landing at the lunar south pole and four years after India's Chandrayaan-2 crashed while attempting a landing on the Moon in 2019. The goal of the mission is to verify how much water ice could be found at lunar pole and used for future human habitation and settlements. The article linked to above relates:
Chandrayaan-3, which means 'mooncraft' in Sanskrit, launched on July 14 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre north of Chennai, the agency's primary spaceport, in front of thousands of cheering spectators.
Chandrayaan-3 consists of a lander with a smaller rover inside that weighs just 26 kg (57lb) – about the same as three full-sized watermelons.
The lander performed its 'soft landing' – one that does not result in significant damage to the vehicle – between the southern craters of Manzinus and Boguslawsky.
Now, science instruments on both the lander and rover will study the region's surface for roughly one lunar day, or 14 Earth days.
Once the time period is up, they will become inactive on the moon and bring the mission to the end.
Chandrayaan-3's instruments will end their days covered in moon dust, although it's not impossible that manned missions to the moon could recover their parts for reuse.
Chandrayaan-3's lander detached from its propulsion module last week, but it has been sending back stunning images of the moon's surface ever since the craft entered lunar orbit on August 5.
The article notes that this mission only cost India $74.6 million, adding: "Experts say India can keep costs low by copying and adapting existing space technology, and thanks to an abundance of highly skilled engineers who earn a fraction of their foreign counterparts' wages." "Copying" is one way of putting it, I suppose.
Great. Now the moon will smell like curry.
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