Moon's South Pole Mission Becomes Several Countries Target
- decodedscience.com
India – India's Chandrayaan-3 mission is already revealing new insights about the Moon's South Pole. Future missions to this region are planned by the United States, China and Russia, so what makes it so interesting?
It's a place where no human-made object has trundled before. Last week, however, the diminutive Pragyaan rover slid down a ramp from its mothership, India's Vikram lander, and began exploring the region around the Moon's South Pole.
The uncrewed spacecraft is something of a pioneer – the first to make a soft-landing in the frigid, crater-strewn lunar polar landscape.Â
Whereas the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s primarily set down near the Moon's equator, the lander from India's Chandrayaan-3 mission successfully touched down about 370 miles (600km) from the moon’s south pole, closer than any spacecraft has been to this location.
Kutub Selatan
- virtualtourist.com
It arrived hot on the heels of a failed Russian attempt two days earlier, the Luna-25 spacecraft, which span out of control and crashed.Â
India's mission is the start of a rush of activity at this enigmatic part of the lunar surface that will ultimately see humans set foot there later this decade.
"It's just incredible that this is happening," said Simeon Barber, a planetary scientist at The Open University in the United Kingdom.Â
Alongside India and Russia, both the US and China have their sights set on the Moon's South Pole. There they hope to investigate some of the Moon's most intriguing mysteries and perhaps even exploit what they find.
But what is it about the Moon's South Pole that has made it so attractive to these visitors?
Already Chandrayaan-3 and its suitcase-sized rover have sent back a few tantalising hints of the strange environment they find themselves in. Travelling at around 1cm (0.4 inches) every second across the dusty surface, the Pragyaan rover has edged itself several metres away from its mothership.
