US Will Be Watching Chandrayaan-3 Launch Closely: Here’s Why

International

oi-Deepika S

The Unites States which made history by putting a man on the moon over half a century ago will be keeping a careful eye on the Chandrayaan-3 launch on Friday.

Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar mission, will be launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on board the Launch Vehicle Mark-III from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, on July 14 at 2.35pm.

If everything goes well, India will become only the fourth country to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the moon, after the United States, the former Soviet Union and China.

“America is looking forward to the launch of Chandrayaan 3 tomorrow… India will become the 4th country in the world to have a soft landing on the moon…”, said US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti.

Why US will be watching Chandrayaan-3 launch closely?

Though US is regarded as the first nation to land a human on the surface of the moon, it is India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission that captured the images of water on the surface of the moon. These pictures were also provided to NASA for their future explorations.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission also comes in the aftermath of India – during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first state visit to the United States – joining the Artemis Accords.

India has signed the Artemis Accords, which advance a common vision of space exploration for the benefit of all humankind. It is an American-led effort to return humans to the moon by 2025, with the ultimate goal of expanding space exploration to Mars and beyond.

In a fact sheet, the White House said India has signed the Artemis Accords, which advance a common vision of space exploration for the benefit of all humankind.

“India joins 26 other countries committed to peaceful, sustainable, and transparent cooperation that will enable exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond. NASA will provide advanced training to Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) astronauts with the goal of launching a joint effort to the International Space Station in 2024,” the statement said.

Additionally, NASA and the ISRO are developing a strategic framework for human spaceflight cooperation by the end of 2023. India approved a $318 million investment to construct a Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in India-that will work in tandem with similar facilities in the United States, Europe, and Japan to look for ripples in space-time, known as gravitational waves, that provide insights into the physical origins of the universe.

South Pole

With Chandrayaan-3 launch, India hopes to become India’s first mission to successfully land on the Moon – that too its unexplored South Pole.

The Lunar South pole is especially interesting because of the lunar surface area that remains in shadow is much larger than that at the North Pole. There could be a possibility of presence of water in permanently shadowed areas around it. In addition, the South Pole region has craters that are cold traps and contain a fossil record of the early Solar System.

According to Sci Tech Daily website, NASA in 2025 plans to send the first human beings to explore the region near the Moon’s South Pole.

According to the NASA website, the agency has “its sights set on locations around the South Pole for the Artemis era of human lunar exploration.”

“Extreme, contrasting conditions make it a challenging location for Earthlings to land, live, and work, but the region’s unique characteristics hold promise for unprecedented deep space scientific discoveries. Using advanced technology including autonomous systems, the crew inside of Starship will land at a carefully selected site within a 100-meter radius,” the website states.

According to Space.com, “Chandrayaan-1, which launched in October 2008, sent a moon orbiter aloft in India’s first-ever deep-space effort. The orbiter carried a 64-pound (29 kilograms) impactor probe that slammed hard (but intentionally) into the lunar surface near the south pole. The impactor detected water ice just before it crashed, a discovery matched by a NASA instrument aboard the Chandrayaan-1 orbiter called the Moon Mineralogy Mapper.”

So, the US and NASA will also be keeping a careful eye on the Chandrayaan-3 launch.

Story first published: Thursday, July 13, 2023, 23:04 [IST]