First EVER photo of moon’s south pole revealed as Indian Chandrayaan-3 rover begins to explore lunar territory after historic landing

By William On Aug 24, 2023

India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has returned its first image of the lunar surface after its triumphant landing on Wednesday.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) posted the stunning photo taken by the lunar lander’s imaging camera just over three hours after landing.

It shows a “relatively” flat region of the lunar surface, with the lander’s leg and associated shadow visible in the right corner.

ISRO previously reported four images captured by the lunar lander’s “horizontal speed camera” from the rugged surface during its heroic descent.

With its tiny dimples and grooves, the moon’s rugged surface, as seen from above, resembles yeast bubbles in bread dough.

The first image of Chandrayaan-3 from the lunar surface shows a “relatively” flat area of the south pole. This is quite unusual because the southern region of the moon is known for its bumpy and rugged terrain

ISRO posted four photos taken by the Lunar Lander’s Horizontal Velocity Camera of the rugged surface as it descended. This is one of them

Chandrayaan-3 consists of a lander containing a smaller rover that weighs only 26 kg – about the same as three large watermelons.

The lander, which has been orbiting the moon for more than two weeks, touched down on the south side of the moon at 6:02 p.m. Indian Standard Time (1:32 p.m. BST) on Wednesday.

The rover rolled out of the lander just hours after landing and is now exploring the region. ISRO has confirmed this.

Science instruments on both the lander and rover will study the region’s surface for about one Monday, or 14 Earth days — a short span of time compared to other space missions.

Both the lander and rover are solar-powered, so after one lunar day they are plunged into the darkness of the lunar night and can no longer operate.

ISRO said more updates will be coming soon on the progress of the mission as it makes its way across uncharted territory for humanity.

It marks a momentous 24 hours for India, left devastated four years ago by the failure of the mission’s predecessor, Chandrayaan-2.

While India is the fourth country to safely land a spacecraft on the moon after the US, Russia and China, it made history as the first country to do so at the south pole of the moon.

Russia had attempted to land its own spacecraft on the southern moon over the weekend, but the mission failed when it spiraled out of control and wrecked.

With its small dimples and grooves, the rough surface of the moon, as seen from above, resembles yeast bubbles in bread dough

While India is the fourth country to safely land a spacecraft on the moon after the US, Russia and China, it made history as the first country to do so at the South Pole.

The Chandrayaan-3 lander, with its rover inside, sits atop the propulsion module that propelled it to lunar orbit. The lander successfully descended to the lunar surface on Wednesday

The rugged southern part of the moon is arousing great interest among space agencies in Russia, China and the US, largely because of its rich water reserves, frozen like ice.

Pockets of this water ice, known as “cold traps,” have the potential to persist for thousands of years on “airless bodies” that lack an atmosphere, such as the moon.

Therefore, these ice packs could provide a record of microbial life, lunar volcanoes, material delivered to Earth by comets and asteroids, or the origin of former oceans.

The abundance of water ice at the South Pole is why it has been identified as a possible future site for a human outpost, which is a focus of NASA’s upcoming Artemis program.

Chandrayaan-3 actually left Earth more than a month ago — aboard a rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Center north of Chennai on July 14.

Chandrayaan-3 has taken much longer to reach the moon than those of the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s, which arrived within days.

This is because India uses missiles that are much less powerful than those used by the US at the time. This means the probe will have to orbit the Earth several times to gain speed before starting its month-long orbit on the moon.

Tensions were high at ground control in India as Chandrayaan-3 made its descent, watched by millions on a live stream

This image from an Indian Space Research Organization video shows the moon’s surface as the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft prepares for landing on Wednesday. The gold insulation material and the solar panels are visible

Locals wave the Indian flag as an Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) rocket carrying the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, an island off the coast of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh on April 14 July 2023

India has a relatively low budget aerospace program, but it has grown significantly in size and momentum since the country first sent a probe to the moon in 2008.

The latest mission comes with a price tag of $74.6 million – much lower than those of other countries, and a testament to India’s thrifty space engineering.

Experts say India can keep costs down by copying and adapting existing aerospace technology, and thanks to an abundance of highly skilled engineers who earn a fraction of the wages of their foreign counterparts.

In 2014, India became the first Asian country to launch a satellite into orbit around Mars, and is set to launch a three-day manned mission into orbit next year.

India is also working with the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) on Chandrayaan-4, which would also land in the south of the moon, but would have a much longer lifespan.

The launch of Chandrayaan-4 is tentatively scheduled for 2025 or 2026.

China and the US will follow India’s success with their own attempts to land on the south pole of the moon

Along with India and Russia, China and the US are also in the race to place spacecraft on the moon’s south pole.

While India won the race to win first, the other three countries are expected to become the second to do so later this decade

China’s Chang’e 7 robotic exploration mission, scheduled for 2026, has the moon’s south pole as its destination.

Meanwhile, NASA’s U.S. Artemis program, unhappy with landing an unmanned robotic gadget on the south of the moon, wants to send humans instead.

The Artemis III mission, which will land the first woman and the first person of color on the moon, is scheduled for 2025, but NASA recently admitted it could be delayed.

Russia’s attempt to land first at the South Pole (Luna 25) failed just days before India took the record.

The Russian mission — a follow-up to 1976’s Luna 24 — failed when it spiraled out of control and wrecked.

Valery Yegorov, a former researcher with the Russian space program who now lives in exile, said the crash would have serious consequences for Roscosmos’ future missions, with the next one not scheduled until 2028 or “even later.”