India's Chandrayaan-3

The successful soft landing of India’s Chandrayaan-3 near the Moon’s south pole on August 23, 2023 was a historic moment. This feat made India the first country to achieve the remarkable feat of landing a spacecraft so close to the south pole of the Moon.

Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar mission and second attempt at a soft landing, lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota on July 14, 2023. The spacecraft entered lunar orbit on August 5, 2023.

ChaSTE has made surprising revelations about the temperature of the Moon’s surface, which recorded temperatures of up to 70 degrees Celsius, while scientists had expected temperatures between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius.

The ‘Pragyan’ rover equipped with LIBS technology confirmed the presence of various elements including Sulphur, Aluminum, Calcium, Iron, Chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon and oxygen on the lunar surface near the south pole.

The importance of the mission extended beyond surface elements, as confirmation of the presence of ice revealed the Moon’s molten history. Chandrayaan-3’s detection of water ice in the subsurface emerged as one of its major achievements, contributing valuable insights into lunar science.

Furthermore, with this successful mission, India joins the elite group of countries like Russia, US and China who have demonstrated soft landing capability on the Moon.

In contrast to its notable space achievements, India’s space program runs on a relatively modest budget, amounting to only 0.05% of its GDP. This is in sharp contrast to the US, which allocates 0.25% of its GDP to space activities.

Despite its modest budget, India ranks 7th globally in terms of operated satellites, behind space superpowers such as the United States and China, demonstrating India’s strength in space technology within its financial constraints.