THE SQUIZ

India is aiming to become the fourth nation to successfully land on the moon tonight – that would see it join the US, China, and the Soviet Union (now Russia) in reaching the moon in one piece. The Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander was launched on 14 July and is scheduled to reach the moon’s surface tonight at about 10:34pm AEST – provided all goes smoothly. If you’re thinking, “didn’t I hear a moon story already this week?” – that would be Russia’s Luna-25, which crashed on Monday. India has also had its own failures… The Chandrayaan-2’s thrusters were slightly off during a 2019 attempt, resulting in a crash into the surface. Neither Russia nor India’s were/are crewed – the last trip involving people was NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in 1972… 

SO WHY GO TO THE MOON?

India’s spacecraft is shooting to be the first to land in the moon’s southern polar region, a location that scientists hope will contain traces of ice. That’s important because moon water could be used for drinking, cooling equipment, breathing, and making rocket fuel for future missions farther into the solar system. And India’s mission isn’t for the faint-hearted… The moon’s south pole – aka the bits not visible from Earth – gets very little sunlight, and the Chandrayaan-3 is scheduled to land in a location just as the sun hits that spot. The lander contains a solar-powered rover vehicle that will explore the surface for 2 weeks before the sunlight disappears, marking the end of the rover and the mission. 

AND WHY IS INDIA INTERESTED IN THIS? 

Two reasons: the mission is a point of national pride, and Indian PM Narendra Modi also hopes it will spur on a private space industry with a bigger slice of the pie that’s being grown by billionaires like Elon Musk (SpaceX), Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic) and Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin). On the launch of the Chandrayaan-3 back in July, Modi said the craft would “carry the hopes and dreams of our nation”, and he will be at the control centre as it attempts to land. Note: he’s probably hoping he won’t have to comfort the space agency’s chief like last time… Heading into a big day, Indian Space Research Orgnaisation’s chairman Sreedhara Somanath said he’s confident and “everything has been all fine so far”. Fingers crossed…