Chandrayaan-3 anniversary: India soft lands on dark side of moon
The space odyssey had its moments of nervous anticipation. There was tension in the air as the Vikram lander module, with the Pragyan rover in its belly, descended on the lunar surface and settled down ever so slowly. The mission had been accomplished.
Russia had attempted a similar mission last year, but its Luna 25 crashed. In April, this year, a mission by the UAE (aboard a Japanese lander) also met the same fate while soft landing on the lunar south pole.
In 2008, the success of Chandrayaan-1 had sent out the message that India had come of age in space exploration. Chandrayaan-3's consolidated its position as a leading member of space-faring elites capable of carrying out interplanetary missions.
The success also helped India bury the failure of the Chandryaan-2 mission in 2019. The mission had run into trouble after landing was initiated and crashed on the lunar surface.
In a unique gesture, the government rewarded Chandrayaan-3 scientists and engineers with the first-ever Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar.
Besides its designated objectives, like sending a rover to explore the dark craters on the moon, Chandrayaan-3 also carried out an unplanned “hop experiment” by the lander, and then, in another ambitious step, brought the propulsion module of Chandrayaan-3 back into the Earth’s orbit.
India spent approximately Rs 700 crore on Chandrayaan-3. The outcomes showed that it fared much better than similar missions of other countries that were better funded.
The site where the Chandrayaan-3 landed — named Shiv Shakti — can be used by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for future moon missions for exploration of the uncharted terrain.
ISRO is now planning to launch a mission to collect sample from Shiv Shakti Point and return to earth. This is supposed to be followed up by an India-Japan joint mission aimed at landing a large rover on the lunar surface.
