Budget lower than a Hollywood movie, India becomes the first country to land on the South Pole of the Moon
At the moment when the Indian "Vikram" lander landed on the South Pole of the Moon, not only did scientists from the Indian Space Research Organization jump up from their seats and cheer, but even Indian Prime Minister Modi, who was watching the landing process online, waved the Indian flag and joined the national celebration.
The live broadcast footage shows that the lander "Vikram" carried by "Lunar 3" achieved a soft landing on the moon at 18:04 Indian time on August 23. India has not only become the fourth country to achieve a lunar probe landing, but also the first country to land in the South Pole of the Moon.
Wang Yanan, an aviation expert at Beihang University and editor in chief of "Aviation Knowledge", told a reporter from First Financial News that the Indian government has long used a large amount of funds and technology to support the development of the aerospace industry. As a landmark industry of a large country, achieving today's achievements is not achieved overnight or by chance.
He further stated that India has emphasized the development of carrier rocket technology, satellite launch and application technology, as well as extraterrestrial object detection capabilities when developing its space industry, but has not actively developed manned space technology, which makes India appear relatively low-key in developing its space industry.
Indian lunar landing
India's lunar ship 3 was launched on July 14th. Due to various factors, the lunar rover "Lungshan-3" did not directly travel to the moon. Instead, it first orbited the Earth five times to raise its orbit, entered the lunar orbit, and then changed its orbit five times to lower its orbit, gradually achieving the standard of achieving a soft landing on the moon.
India chose to land in the complex surface environment of the South Pole of the Moon, making it the first probe in history to land at the South Pole of the Moon, which is of historic significance. Just a few days ago on the 19th, the Russian "Lunar-25" probe was originally planned to land at the South Pole of the Moon one step ahead, but the probe eventually deviated from its intended orbit and collided with the surface of the Moon before losing contact. The mission ended in failure.
Although Russia was forced to withdraw from the competition with India early, after India achieved a soft landing, Russian President Putin still congratulated Modi, stating that "this is a significant progress in space exploration and also proves that India has made impressive progress in the field of science and technology.".
Wang Yanan told a reporter from First Financial News that India and Russia have different strategies for landing on the moon. India's strategy for landing on the moon is to change tracks multiple times at a low pace, while Russia's strategy is to change tracks at a fast pace. The two have no high or low technical level, but different ways of achieving the mission.
He further analyzed that achieving a successful lunar landing tests a country's aerospace automation design capabilities. The reliability of India's space probes has now been tested, and the probes have a high level of localization, indicating that India has indeed made breakthroughs in the aerospace industry.
Lunar Ship 3 will work on the moon for about two weeks, analyzing the soil and rocks on the lunar surface, and searching for the presence of "water ice" at the south pole of the moon. Research has shown that the ice layer on the surface of the South Pole of the Moon may provide various supplies such as drinking water for future human lunar landings.
Super money saving
The "Moon Ship 3" plan is also very cost-effective, with a total cost of 6.15 billion Indian rupees. This cost is not only lower than the current popular Hollywood movies "Barbie" or "Oppenheimer", but also less than half of the $165 million cost of the space themed "Star Trek".
Moonship 3 was developed by the Indian Space Research Organization and was established in 1969. Its main mission is to design and launch Earth orbit satellites to assist in meteorological forecasting, space communication, and other functions.
In 2008, the Indian Space Research Organization successfully launched the first lunar probe, "Lungshan-1", but the originally planned two-year operation of "Lungshan-1" was lost in August 2009. In July 2019, it launched the "Lunchcraft 2" probe. In September of that year, the lander attempted a soft landing on the lunar surface but lost contact. Relevant parties admitted in November that the lander had crashed.
Modi, who is attending the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, expressed his hope to use the success of this lunar landing to drive private investment and stimulate their enthusiasm for the aerospace industry after watching the landing process.
Wang Yanan told First Financial reporters that India has ambitious space goals and will also focus on manned space technology in the next step. In terms of hardware, India needs to develop rockets suitable for manned spaceflight, develop suitable manned spacecraft, and in terms of software, there are also many areas that need to be addressed, including astronaut selection, development of space food and tools, and so on.
In addition, according to the schedule, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's intelligent lunar probe will embark on a lunar exploration journey on August 26th, testing precision landing technology, which will be Japan's first lunar surface exploration mission. Previously, the moon landing attempt by Japanese private space exploration company iSpace ended in failure in April, and the UAE lunar rover it was carrying also crashed.
