TOUCHING NEW HORIZONS

“India is on the moon!” These five words will forever be etched into the collective memory of every Indian who bore witness to the historic event on the momentous evening of August 23, 2023, at 6:04 p.m. IST.

- Oshin Ahlawat

Introduction 

The triumphant soft landing of India’s Chandrayaan-3 on the lunar surface marks, not just a giant leap for India’s space exploration, but a monumental stride for all of humanity.

India now stands as the fourth nation, following the USA, the former Soviet Union, and China, to accomplish the awe-inspiring feat of landing on the moon’s surface. Yet, what sets this achievement apart is India’s pioneering venture into the uncharted territory of the moon – the enigmatic south-polar region. A region of darkness and ice untouched by human exploration until now. This is where Chandrayaan-3, the first man-made space object, has made its home for all of eternity to come.

Exploring Uncharted Territory 

The south polar region of the moon has been known to be a notoriously dangerous zone to land on safely. Unlike the previously uncrewed landers and the Apollo astronauts, who landed on the wide and flat expanses in the equatorial regions of the moon’s Earth-facing hemisphere, Chandrayaan-3 had to land on the heavily boulder-strewn fields.

The challenge to navigate the polar regions lies not just in the rocky terrains, but also in the water-hosting regions that receive little to no sunlight. Hence, leading the scientists to speculate in the past that they could contain large reserves of frozen water. These speculations were confirmed to be true by ISRO’s Chandrayaan-1 orbiter in 2008.