India Launches a Lander and Rover To Explore the Moon's South Pole (npr.org) 12
An Indian spacecraft blazed its way to the far side of the moon Friday in a follow-up mission to its failed effort nearly four years ago to land a rover softly on the lunar surface, the country's space agency said. From a report: Chandrayaan-3, the word for "moon craft" in Sanskrit, took off from a launch pad in Sriharikota in southern India with an orbiter, a lander and a rover, in a demonstration of India's emerging space technology. The spacecraft is set to embark on a journey lasting slightly over a month before landing on the moon's surface later in August. Applause and cheers swept through mission control at Satish Dhawan Space Center, where the Indian Space Research Organization's engineers and scientists celebrated as they monitored the launch of the spacecraft. Thousands of Indians cheered outside the mission control center and waved the national flag as they watched the spacecraft rise into the sky.
"Congratulations India. Chandrayaan-3 has started its journey towards the moon," ISRO Director Sreedhara Panicker Somanath said shortly after the launch. A successful landing would make India the fourth country -- after the United States, the Soviet Union, and China -- to achieve the feat. The six-wheeled lander and rover module of Chandrayaan-3 is configured with payloads that would provide data to the scientific community on the properties of lunar soil and rocks, including chemical and elemental compositions, said Dr. Jitendra Singh, junior minister for Science and Technology. India's previous attempt to land a robotic spacecraft near the moon's little-explored south pole ended in failure in 2019. It entered the lunar orbit but lost touch with its lander that crashed while making its final descent to deploy a rover to search for signs of water.
"Congratulations India. Chandrayaan-3 has started its journey towards the moon," ISRO Director Sreedhara Panicker Somanath said shortly after the launch. A successful landing would make India the fourth country -- after the United States, the Soviet Union, and China -- to achieve the feat. The six-wheeled lander and rover module of Chandrayaan-3 is configured with payloads that would provide data to the scientific community on the properties of lunar soil and rocks, including chemical and elemental compositions, said Dr. Jitendra Singh, junior minister for Science and Technology. India's previous attempt to land a robotic spacecraft near the moon's little-explored south pole ended in failure in 2019. It entered the lunar orbit but lost touch with its lander that crashed while making its final descent to deploy a rover to search for signs of water.
Steady progress (Score:5, Insightful)
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World effort I guess. I did not know the Indians would have such a supportive space program to be able to go to space. Yes its probably British funded though I still get surprised it is even possible w/the issues they currently still have in their country.
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Correction (Score:5, Informative)
The summary/article has the wrong order.
Soft landings:
USSR
United States
China
Lunar rovers:
USSR
China
There are lots of other records of course, like first photo of the "dark" side, first human landing etc. But those are the two that India will add its name to with this lander/rover combo. It will be the first to the pole too.
In the last few years both Israeli and Japanese private companies have tried to soft land on the moon, both ending in failure. The first private soft landing is still up for grabs.
Re:Correction (Score:4, Informative)
The summary/article has the wrong order.
Soft landings: USSR United States China
Lunar rovers: USSR China
There are lots of other records of course, like first photo of the "dark" side, first human landing etc. But those are the two that India will add its name to with this lander/rover combo. It will be the first to the pole too.
In the last few years both Israeli and Japanese private companies have tried to soft land on the moon, both ending in failure. The first private soft landing is still up for grabs.
United States should also be on that rover list...ours was manned however.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Interesting that this entirely factual post was modded "troll". Apparently for someone here, history is trolling them and they presumably prefer some fantasy version of it.
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The summary didn't say that the list was in chronological order, so complaining that it's wrong because it's not chronological is nit-picking a fact that isn't a fact.
And, yes, the U.S. should be on the list of countries that have put a rover on the moon.
Coming Soon to the Moon (Score:2, Funny)
A scam call centre so far away they don't even have to bother bribing the Indian police.
Livestream? (Score:3)
Does the orbiter have video and are they streaming live surface imaging?
Followers of the Vedic texts have less incentive to only release retouched and recolored imaging than NASA does.
Despite my distrustful nature I was still shocked to see natural color images of Mars and to learn that NASA had decided to stop making them all red recently.
I didn't want to believe Bonnie Holmes.