Led by the ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organization, the landing of Chandrayaan-3 marked the first successful space landing for India, a major accomplishment for the country as well as a massive step forward for the field of space exploration. “This success belongs to all of humanity and it will help moon missions by other countries in the future. I’m confident that all countries around the world, including those from the global south, are capable of capturing success. We can all aspire to the moon and beyond,” Narenda Modi, Indian Prime Minister, said.
The mission followed the unsuccessful landing of Chandrayaan-2, another space mission launched by India in 2019 that crashed into the moon after algorithmic malfunctions. To remedy this mistake, the ISRO specified that they had drastically improved the mathematical algorithms used in the landing mechanism’s launch and descent including a function that could calculate the velocity and trajectory of the lander in real time. This time, India’s efforts paid off and Chandrayaan-3 became the first ever probe to land on the moon’s south pole which was notorious for its soft soil and uneven terrain.
Considering the relatively low budget for the mission, around 72 million dollars which is less than most movies nowadays, the successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3 was an astronomical feat by any standard. “It’s a great moment of happiness on behalf of the team. It gives me immense satisfaction on achieving this goal as project director of this mission. The entire mission operations right from launch ‘till landing happened flawlessly as per the timeline,” Sreedhara Somanath, ISRO chairman, said. Already, the probe has deployed its rover, Pragyan, which aims to intensively study the mineral composition of the moon’s soil in its south pole. Because it is believed that the south pole of the moon contains water in the form of massive ice caps, the knowledge acquired from this mission could lay the groundwork for future lunar missions, including crewed missions to establish semi sustainable colonies on the moon.
