Will the ‘slow and steady’, Chandrayaan-3 soft land on the South Pole of the Moon first or the ‘fast flying’, Luna-25 spacecraft of Russia achieve the distinction?
This is the question that has excited many as an interesting race to the Moon has suddenly emerged and is underway. The two nations are targeting to land between Aug 21 and 23 respectively. All indications are the Luna-25 of the Roscosmos will try the landing first given its speed.
Though, not an intended move by the two countries, the launch of the much delayed Russian mission has turned it into a race and brought the spotlight on the Moon this August. The Russian Luna-25 was launched on August 10 by its Soyuz rocket. The Indian space agency- Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the Chandrayaan-3 mission on July 14 on its LVM-3 rocket.
Russian spacecraft is smaller
Perhaps the question uppermost for all of us is how come the Russian Luna spacecraft is hurtling to the Moon in two weeks while India’s Chandrayaan-3 is taking nearly 6 weeks. The answer, in simple terms is that the Russian spacecraft is smaller, carrying more fuel, is less heavy, launched by a powerful rocket, has few experiments for the light weight lander and taking a more direct route to reach the 384, 400 km distance to the Moon. In contrast, India’s low cost mission, a larger spacecraft, very less fuel, carrying a heavier, movable lander, about a dozen experimental equipment on it and is flying a circuitous route with multiple manoeuvres to be carried out in precision.
Who will win the race is the logical question that has hogged the space sector with Russia launching its spacecraft on August 11 to land on the Lunar surface. The original space, superpower is back into the Moon quest after nearly 50 years. The Russians want to land as early as on August 21.
The Indian Chandrayaan-3 mission launched on July 14 is on target, now into the lunar orbit and readying to make the effort to land, Vikram the lander on August 23. It may be recalled that the first attempt in 2019, made by Chandrayaan-2, came a cropper in the dying moments of the landing.
Overall, the race between Luna-25 and Chandrayaan-3 represents a unfolding new era in lunar exploration in which key nations including the US, China, Israel, India as well as billionaire owned private companies are all heading to the nearest celestial neighbour with probes to future manned missions. The successes achieved are expected to be big lessons for the more ambitious exploration of the Solar System, especially inter-planetary missions, space tourism and search for life and minerals in space bodies. In that sense, the ability and expertise to reach first could matter in the long run.
Allies, not competitors
Unlike the great rivalry of the 1950s and 70s between the US and erstwhile Soviet Union, which saw the first human landing on the Moon (Neil Armstrong of US); first human into space (Yuri Gagarin, USSR) and the Russians landing the Luna mission, India and Russia are longtime collaborators in space.
The Russians have played a key role in India’s space missions, including launching of the first cosmonaut, Sqdr. Leader Rakesh Sharma into space in 1984 and training potential cosmonauts for the Gaganyaan project, which wants to put humans into space in the near future.
In the history of space, the former Soviet Union is a trend setter. It had a string of successes way ahead of the Americans. It succeeded in putting multiple landers and even rovers on the Moon 50 years ago.
The Luna-25 missions marks the return of the Russians to the Lunar quest after 47 years. It was in 1976 that the last Luna space probe was launched by the then USSR. Over the years, the disintegration of USSR into multiple nations, the rebuilding of strengths and facilities by Russia slowed down its space explorations and was mostly focussed on the International Space Stations and helping other countries build their own space programmes.
The Moon calling
Meanwhile, the interest on the Moon has been intensified with the US, China, India, Japan, Israel, UAE, now Russia and private biggies like the Blue Origin of multi-billionaire, Jeff Bezos and Virgin Galactic of Richard Branson having launched or in the process of firming up their ambitious programmes.
The US, Russia and China are the only three nations so far to land on the lunar surface. Landing on the South side has been treacherous so far, with the last three attempts since 2019 having failed. The Israel space craft, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 and the Japan helped UAE probe.
That is the big excitement in the Chandrayaan-3 and Luna-25 attempts that the world is looking up to. The special focus on the South Pole, where most of the times, darkness prevails holds out the likelihood of finding water-ice and minerals. India’s Chandrayaan-1 (2008) had for the first time established the presence of water molecules on the lunar surface.
The missions by the growing number of nations reflect the renewed interest in the Moon for space exploration. In the event of discover and existence of larger pockets of water on the lunar surface scientists also see the possibility of extracting hydrogen from the water and potentially use as rocket fuel from the Moon for onward planetary missions. This, of course will be in addition to treating the water to make it potable, say space experts.
India recently joined the Project Artemis of US which aims to land humans on the Moon in late 2024. The US, UK and India are among 27 countries signed up to the multi-billion dollar, Artemis Project. In early 2023, a lunar probe was launched by the US under the project. On the other hand, China has begun growing into a major space power with many initiatives. It had joined hands with Russia to jointly build a future Moon base, the International Lunar Research Station.
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