The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has successfully landed its unmanned lunar exploration vehicle Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon’s south pole. The monumental moment for India comes just days after Russia’s Luna-25 crashed into the lunar surface attempting the same feat. The race has highlighted the post-Soviet decline of the Russian space program and the emergence of India as a new power in space exploration.
Landing any spacecraft on the Moon’s south pole is a treacherous objective. Besides Russia’s Luna-25, Chandrayaan-2 also crashed during its landing attempt in 2019. India was gripped by the renewed mission and hoped that this landing would be successful.
Reuters reports Chandrayaan-3 will spend the next two weeks analyzing the mineral composition of the Moon’s south pole. The hope is to find water ice that will be vital to supply a permanent settlement on the Moon. The ice would be necessary to have a relatively nearby supply of water, oxygen and fuel, instead of being completely reliant on resources being sent from Earth.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the country from the BRICS Summit in South Africa. According to the Associated Press, Modi said, “India is now on the moon. India has reached the south pole of the moon — no other country has achieved that. We are witnessing history.”
India’s next mission to the Moon will be another unmanned assessment of the lunar south pole, but done in collaboration with Japan. India and Japan are both signatories of the Artemis Accords, the multilateral international agreement to assist NASA’s Artemis program.