India moon lander successfully reaches lunar south pole, begins hunt for water ice

India's space program made double history today with the successful landing of its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft in the moon’s mysterious south polar region.

It's a twofold milestone: the first landing near the south pole and the first lunar touchdown for India. India is now the fourth nation to land on the moon, following the U.S., Russia/Soviet Union, and China.

• Watch livestream of the landing.

The world watched the progress of Chandrayaan-3 after the loss of Russia's Luna-25, which crashed into the lunar surface Sunday preparing for a pre-landing orbit of the moon. The Russian space agency Roscosmos said the craft "ceased its existence as a result of a collision with the lunar surface."

The two uncrewed craft were in an unofficial race to land at the moon's south pole about 75 miles apart. Luna-25 launched Aug. 11 and was expected to land Monday. Its crash location was not immediately known. Chandrayaan-3 launched July 14.

Chandrayaan-3's mission will span 14 days, or about one full lunar day, and will shut down after that, the Indian Space Research Organization, ISRO, said. The car-sized lander will deploy a small rover to explore the moon's surface. Besides taking soil samples, the rover will hunt for water ice, or frozen water inside the shadows of south pole craters.

Water ice on the moon – discovered by NASA and India – is the holy grail of future lunar exploration.

Where did Indian spacecraft land on the moon?

Chandrayaan-3 landed near the moon's south pole, where rough terrain can make landing difficult. The manned U.S. Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s were closer to the moon's equator. Those sites were chosen because they had fewer craters and emphasis was placed on astronaut safety.

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Why is water ice on the moon so important?

The moon’s south pole is an area that has never been directly explored, though orbiting spacecraft have throughly photographed and mapped the region.

Interest has increased in the lunar south pole because it has water in the form of ice inside large craters. Some of these are known as Permanently Shadowed Regions because they haven't seen direct sunlight for billions of years.

The water, which could be extracted and used for drinking, breathing and for rocket fuel, makes the area a prime target for long-term exploration of the moon and beyond, NASA says. The U.S. Artemis III mission, planned for 2025, will land astronauts near the south pole.

What will Chandrayaan-3 do on the moon?

Chandrayaan means "moon vehicle" in Sanskrit. The current flight is India’s second landing attempt. Chandrayaan-2’s lander and rover crashed onto the lunar surface in 2019. Its orbiter continues to operate.

There are three parts to the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft:

• A propulsion module that is carrying the lunar vehicles to the moon.
• A lander called Vikram, after Vikram Sarabhai, founder of ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organization, will descend to the lunar surface near Manzinus crater.
• A small rover called Pragyan, the Sanskrit word for wisdom, that will leave the lander and begin traveling on the moon.

Chandrayaan-3 took about 40 days to reach the moon. That's much longer than the Apollo 11 flight in 1969, which took four days. Luna-25 launched Aug. 11 and was reported crashed on Aug. 20.

Apollo used its powerful Saturn V rocket for a direct trajectory to the moon. Chandrayaan-3 used a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-III, a less powerful rocket. It used strategic engine ignitions during a series of Earth orbits to gradually increase its speed toward the moon.

Luna-25 was carried into space by a Soyuz-2 Fregat rocket, also less powerful than the Apollo Saturn V.

Chandrayaan-3 does not have its own orbiter, a spacecraft that will circle the moon, monitor its progress and communicate with Earth. Instead, the orbiter from Chandrayaan-2 will be used.

Once on the surface, a small panel in the side of Vikram will open and the six-wheeled, suitcase-sized rover Pragyan will roll down a ramp and begin exploring.

What instruments does Chandrayaan-3's rover and lander carry?

Lander

• Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA): Measures changes in subatomic particles near the lunar surface.
• Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE): Measures how the lunar surface conducts heat.
• Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA): Measures seismic activity, or moon quakes, at the landing site for a better understanding of the moon's crust and mantle.
• Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA): A laser reflector from NASA that will be used to measure the distance from the Earth to the moon.

Rover

• Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS): Uses a laser to analyze moon soil.
• Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS): Determines chemical elements of rocks and soil.

What was Luna-25's mission on the moon?

Russia's Luna-25, planned to put a lander in the south polar region, though in a different landing area than Chandrayaan-3. It did not have a rover. It was supposed to land near the Boguslavsky crater for a one-year mission. Roscosmos, the Russia space agency, had said Luna-25 would not interfere with Chandrayaan-3.

Luna-25's lander carried eight scientific instruments and would have collected soil and rock samples. It would have sent analyses to Earth and was expected to remain operational for about a year.

Luna-25 was Russia's first lunar landing since the uncrewed Soviet Luna-24 in 1976. That mission delivered about six ounces of lunar soil to Earth.

Who else is heading to the moon's south pole?

U.S.

Late 2024: NASA plans to launch its Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, a robot rover that will record and map images of water ice.

2025: Artemis III will land humans near the south pole.

China

2026: China's Chang'e 7 mission will send an orbiter, lander, rover and a small flying device to the south pole to hunt for ice. China's Yutu-2 rover, which landed on the far side of the moon in 2019, is still operational.

Russia also plans future Luna missions.

Historic landings on moon

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CONTRIBUTING Jim Sergent, USA TODAY

SOURCE USA TODAY Network reporting and research; NASA; irso.gov; The Planetary Society; space.com; universetoday.com; Associated Press; European Space Agency