India’s third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed on the Moon on Wednesday, August 23 at 6.03 PM IST. With this historic feat, India has become the first country to land near the Moon’s south pole and also the fourth country to land on the Moon after the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China. The Chandrayaan-3’s journey began from Earth on July 14 when the spacecraft took off from Sriharikota. After this, a few orbit-raising manoeuvres eventually led to its insertion into the lunar orbit on August 5. Slowly, the spacecraft contracted the distance between itself and the Moon’s surface before landing on Earth’s only natural satellite. The spacecraft is equipped with the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover that will perform experiments on the Moon to find evidence of frozen water and to develop a better understanding of the Moon’s unexplored polar region. Ancient water ice could provide a record of lunar volcanoes, and about material that comets and asteroids brought to Earth. It will also help shed light on how oceans formed. This ice from the lunar south pole may be used to extract water, oxygen, and fuel for future crewed missions to the Moon. The Chandrayaan-3’s primary objectives are to demonstrate safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, to demonstrate rover roving on the Moon, and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.
HISTORIC! INDIA CONQUERS THE MOON
