The Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander, launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), successfully touched down on the moon, making India the first country to reach the lunar south pole.
A Russian lunar probe crashed in the same area of the moon a few days prior to the Vikram lander of Chandrayaan-3 touching down there.
According to Al Jazeera, Chandrayaan-3, which means “moon craft” in Sanskrit, launched on July 14 from Sriharikota in southern India.
With the goal of researching and exhibiting new technology required for extraterrestrial missions, Chandrayaan-3 is made up of an indigenous Lander module (LM), a Propulsion module (PM), and a Rover.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
The image captured by the
Landing Imager Camera
after the landing.It shows a portion of Chandrayaan-3's landing site. Seen also is a leg and its accompanying shadow.
Chandrayaan-3 chose a relatively flat region on the lunar surface 🙂… pic.twitter.com/xi7RVz5UvW
— ISRO (@isro) August 23, 2023
The Indian space programme is said to have been started by Vikram Sarabhai, whose name is on the Vikram lander.
The Vikram lander can release the Rover, which will conduct on-site chemical study of the lunar surface while it is in motion, after a soft landing at a chosen lunar area.
Former federal minister Fawad Chaudhry took to twitter and lauded India’s moon mission and said, ”What a great moment for ISRO as Chandrayaan-3 lands on the Moon.”
”I can see lots of young scientists celebrating this moment with Mr Somnat Chairman ISRO, only Younger generation with dreams can change the world,” he added.
https://twitter.com/fawadchaudhry/status/1694328525380272409
India has a fairly low-budget aerospace programme, but since it launched its first lunar orbiting mission in 2008, it has considerably increased in size and velocity.
The most recent trip only cost $74.6 million, which is far less than missions from other countries and proof of India’s frugal space engineering.
Experts claim that India can reduce costs by using and modifying present space technology as well as by hiring a huge number of highly qualified engineers at wages that are far lower than those of their international counterparts.
In 2014, India became the first Asian nation to deploy a satellite in Mars orbit. By the end of the year, it also planned on sending a three-day crewed mission to the Earth’s orbit.