2023: The year when India lit up dark side of the Moon with Chandrayaan-3

The space race heated up in 2023. One of the most significant moments in the history of space exploration was when an astronaut from the United States, Neil Armstrong, became the first man to walk on the Moon.

But it happened over half a century ago, after such a massive gap, the race to reach the Moon has gained momentum, in the year 2023 will be remembered for India's massive contribution in this sector - the Chandrayaan-3 mission.

The landing on the dark side of the Moon was special as it came four years after the Chandrayaan-2 crash-landed.

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India became the only fourth country to successfully land on the moon, after the former USSR, the United States and China.

The lunar south pole is believed to be a region with water ice, or frozen water, that could be a source of oxygen, fuel and water for future moon missions.

From north to south, from east to west, the entire nation took great interest in the project and followed each and every update by following the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Chandrayaan-3 put India's flag on Moon

Chandrayaan-3 consisted of an indigenous Lander module (LM), a Propulsion module (PM) and a Rover. The rover aimed to develop and demonstrate new technologies required for Inter planetary missions.

The Lander was capable of soft landing at a pre-specified lunar site. It deployed the Rover which carried out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface till the time it was mobile.

The spacecraft July 14, 2023, departed from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre - a barrier island in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

It entered lunar orbit in a few days, by August 5. One of the biggest days in the history of Indian space research was August 23, 2023, when the lander touched down near the lunar south pole.

The objectives were: (1) To demonstrate a Safe and Soft Landing on Lunar Surface. (2) To demonstrate Rover roving on the moon, and (3)To conduct in-situ scientific experiments.

The Vikram lander and Pragyan rover did not wake up during the lunar day, which equals 14 Earth days which could have been due to the extremely cold lunar nights. Scientists believe that the batteries might have been affected. But if collected precious data when they were awake.

ISRO said that the Chandrayaan 3 mission confirmed the presence of sulphur, aluminium, calcium, iron, chromium, titanium, manganese, oxygen and silicon near the south pole of the Moon.

An instrument named Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) on board the lander module measured temperature variation between the Moon's surface and a point around 8 cm below.

Data recorded by ChaSTE showed that where the lander is located, the temperature is 40-50 degrees C. However, it plunges to around -10 degrees C under 80 mm. The temperature variation shows that the topsoil of the moon is an excellent thermal insulator.

India's future in space exploration

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is also focusing on increasing investment in private space launches and related satellite-based businesses.

The nation also wants its private space companies to increase their share of the global launch market in the coming years.

India is taking slow and steady steps in space exploration, history tells us that slow and steady wins the race.

(With inputs fromagencies)