Today, Wednesday, at 2:34 p.m. (peninsular time), the Indian probe Chandrayaan 3 is scheduled to land on the south pole of the Moon. If all goes according to plan, the mission will go down in history twice: India will become the fourth country to successfully touch down on lunar soil (after the United States, the former Soviet Union and China), and the first to do so at the south pole of our satellite, a place that has become strategic after the presence of frozen water inside some of its craters was confirmed.
The expectation generated by this mission has increased notably as a result of the accident suffered by the Russian spacecraft Luna-25 last Saturday. The probe was also supposed to land near the south pole of the Moon, but the Russian space agency Roscosmos lost contact with it as it began an orbit adjustment maneuver.
A few hours later, Roscosmos confirmed the accident: "According to preliminary observations, the ship has ceased to exist after a collision with the surface of the Moon." Yuri Borisov, the head of the Russian space agency, has announced an in-depth analysis to clarify the cause of the incident, which could be due to the incorrect operation of one of the engines.
The case of Luna-25 is preceded by the accidents suffered by lunar missions of various nationalities. In 2019, the Israeli probe Beresheet crashed while attempting to descend to the Moon. The same year, India lost the Chandrayaan 2 lander after it went off course in the final moments of the landing maneuver. And neither did the Hakuto-R spacecraft in April this year, a mission operated by the private Japanese company ispace.
In recent years, evidence has accumulated indicating that the Moon is not as extremely dry a place as previously believed. NASA's Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions (1994 and 1998 respectively) obtained the first data compatible with the presence of water ice in some of the deepest craters at the Moon's poles, places where ice, perhaps Contributed by impacts of comets or asteroids, it could remain protected from the incidence of sunlight.
After other probes supported this first information, in 2018 NASA definitively confirmed the existence of ice in the craters of the south pole of our satellite, thanks to data collected seven years earlier by the Indian Chandrayaan 1 mission from lunar orbit.
From that moment on, the south pole of the Moon became a priority objective for various space agencies, since water is an essential asset to power future bases and also as a source of fuel for ships.
The strategic importance of the lunar south pole has been demonstrated by the coincidence, in the calendar, of the Indian and Russian missions, with planned moon landings within a few hours of each other.
Chandrayaan 3, India's third lunar mission, began its space journey on July 14, and entered lunar orbit on August 5. In recent days, the spacecraft has carried out various maneuvers to adjust its trajectory in preparation for the culminating moment, scheduled for the next few hours, in which the mission's lander will descend near the south pole of the Moon, transporting, in its inside, a small explorer robot.
Although all indications are that the mission is proceeding according to plan, Nilesh M. Desai, the director of the Indian space agency's space applications center, stated on Monday that "two hours before Chandrayaan 3 lands, a decision will be made on whether It may or may not be appropriate to do so at that time, depending on the health of the lander and conditions on the Moon." And he added that, in the event that any factor that could jeopardize the operation is detected, the landing would be postponed until August 27.
For its part, the Luna-25 mission meant the return of Russia to the Moon after 46 years of absence (the last successful mission was that of the Soviet spacecraft Luna-24, in 1977). The project had suffered several delays and setbacks, including the withdrawal of the European space agency to collaborate in the mission as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (ESA planned to install and test a navigation camera for the moon landing). Finally, Luna-25 was launched into space on August 10, and Roscosmos announced that the landing in the Boguslawsky crater, relatively close to the south pole of the Moon, would take place on the 21st.
The failure of the Russian mission represents a severe blow to the Russian space program. As Roscosmos had declared before the accident, Luna-25 had to demonstrate that Russia "is a state capable of sending payloads to the Moon" in addition to "guaranteeing the country's access to the lunar surface."
The South Pole is also the location chosen by the United States space agency, NASA, for the human return to the Moon. The Artemis 3 mission, scheduled for 2025 or 2026, will transport four astronauts to the Moon and two of them will descend to the surface, a fact that has not happened since the landing of Apollo 17 in 1972.
For its part, China announced, last May, its intention to send astronauts to the Moon by the year 2030, although the specific place of destination was not specified.
The Asian giant's statement is supported by the recent successes of its space program. In 2019, China became the first country to land on the far side of the Moon (it did so with the Chang'e 4 mission, carrying a robot that is still active). Subsequently, in December 2020, Chang'e 5 managed to bring lunar samples to Earth, an event that had not occurred since 1976 (in that year it was carried out by the Soviet Luna-24 mission). And in the year 2021, China managed to place a robot on the surface of Mars.
Both the United States and China (in alliance with Russia) have announced plans for lunar bases over the next decade.
