New Delhi

'Fly me to the moon' was the motto of 2023 when it comes to space missions. The Moon has always been of immense interest among poets, scientists and astronomers alike. Whenever humans have thought of settling in any other celestial body than Earth, the Moon has always been the first option.

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It is mainly because of the Moon's habitable atmosphere (as compared to planets) and partly for being intriguing as Earth's only natural satellite.

Several moon missions have been carried out in the past and many more are planned in the coming years. Similarly, in 2023, we saw a couple of moon missions- Chandryaan-3, Luna-25 and SLIM. All these missions were aimed at studying the Moon in a different way than the other, but the collective motive was to find how much the Moon is habitable for humans. 

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Moon is not just a site of mere exploration now; it can become a landing site for spacecraft aboard humans if they want to explore the deep space beyond the Moon. Hence, all the moon missions carried out by countries are not just their individual achievements but are part of a larger knowledge base that will eventually help humans settle on the Moon. 

Moon missions in 2023 started a new space race

The world witnessed its first space race during the Cold War era starting with Moon. Both the United States and the then Soviet Union achieved many scientifically important firsts in the quest for reaching the Moon. 

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The first landing on the Moon was finally achieved in 1969 by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins aboard the Apollo 11 spacecraft. Before this pivotal event in the 20th century, a barrage of experiments and missions were done to properly understand the Moon.

Likewise, in order to settle humans on the Moon, whether as tourists or scientific observers, we first need to collect more information about this natural satellite of Earth.

In 2023, we almost saw a space race to enhance the understanding of the Moon and its surface and environment.

Take a look. 

Chandrayaan-3 by India

India scripted history with the landing of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the Moon. What made this one-of-a-kind space feat unique was that India became the first nation to touch down the south pole of the Moon, demonstrating a soft landing. 

As the name implies, Chandrayaan-3 was India’s third lunar mission and was launched on July 14 with a lander, rover and propulsion module. It landed successfully on the South Pole region of the Moon on August 23. 

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:

?Pragyan 100*

Meanwhile, over the Moon, Pragan Rover has traversed over 100 meters and continuing. pic.twitter.com/J1jR3rP6CZ

— ISRO (@isro) September 2, 2023

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Moon’s South Pole, also known as the lunar south pole, is of special interest to scientists because of the occurrence of water ice in permanently shadowed areas around it.

The lunar south pole has craters on its surface that are unique in their own way, as sunlight is not able to reach their interiors. 

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This is why these craters are cold traps that contain a fossil record of hydrogen, water ice, and other volatiles dating from the early Solar System. Considering these cold temperatures, the matter trapped in the southern lunar region wouldn’t have witnessed much change over the years and could thereby hold clues to early life. 

SLIM by Japan

Japan’s space JAXA launched its SLIM mission to the moon on September 6. SLIM stands for Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, which carried one lunar lander, a mini rover and a space telescope called XRISM. SLIM successfully entered the orbit of the Moon on December 25. 

This is the location of SLIM in the sky from now on when looking towards the Moon from Earth. Although the tilt will change depending on the observer’s location due to the Earth’s rotation, the relative position when looking at the Moon until SLIM’s landing will follow this path! pic.twitter.com/Y16c2hnoPj

— 小型月着陸実証機SLIM (@SLIM_JAXA) December 19, 2023

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Japan’s moon mission is different from India’s Chandrayaan-3 but it will help future moon missions like Chandrayaan. The mission is a small-scale exploration lander designed for pinpoint landings on the moon’s surface. 

If Japan’s moon mission is able to achieve its objectives, it can help humans make a quantitative shift towards being able to land where we want and not just where it is easy to land. By achieving this, it will become possible to land on planets even more resource-scarce than the moon.

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The lander, which has now been inserted in the lunar orbit, is slated to land on January 20, at around 12 am Japan time. JAXA has said that the lander will land 20 minutes later. Though its landing is still far away, its insertion into the moon's orbit was a feat in itself. 

Luna-25 by Russia

Russia Roscosmos launched Luna 25 on August 10 with an aim to land a spacecraft on the Moon. It was launched aboard a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. Unfortunately, it crashed on the Moon on August 19 after facing a technical glitch. 

? Back to the Moon!

?? Russia launched a historic lunar mission, as its #Luna25 craft blasted off into space from #Vostochny cosmodrome without a hitch.

The probe is to help fine-tune Russian soft-landing technology, and conduct studies in the south pole of Earth's satellite. pic.twitter.com/rVC9YuQixr

— Russia ?? (@Russia) August 11, 2023

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When it comes to China, they already began their preparations in 2023 for the launch of Chang’e 6, which is a planned robotic Chinese lunar exploration mission. It is expected to launch in 2024 and perform China’s second sample return mission. It will attempt to obtain the first-ever soil and rock samples from the lunar far side and return them to the Earth. 

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The US, on the other hand, hasn’t tried a moon landing since 1972.

But with the upcoming Artemis missions, NASA will aim to land humans on the Moon again.

NASA’s administrator, Bill Nelson, has called this a “golden age” of spaceflight, culminating in the landing of Artemis astronauts on the Moon late in 2025.

(With inputs from agencies)