Explained: Chandrayaan-3 Will Be First Lander To Land On Moon's South Pole - Here’s Why It Is So Important

The South Pole of the Moon, where Chandrayaan-3 is supposed to land, is a very different place than where the US Moon missions took place. No spacecraft has landed there so far.

Madhur Sharma

Updated on: 7 July 2023 3:13 pm

Preparation for Chandrayaan-3 mission

The Chandrayaan-3, the successor to Chandrayaan-1 and -2, is set to embark on its journey to the Moon on July 14.

It will be the first spacecraft to land on the South Pole of the Moon, which remains an area unexplored by the humans.

The equipment aboard the Chandrayaan-3 are supposed to conduct a number of experiments on Moon for a period of 14 Earth-days. One day on Moon is equal to 14 days on Earth.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has stated that Chandrayaan-3 is a step towards developing and demonstrating technology that would one day be used for interplanetary missions.

Here we explain what the Chandrayaan-3 will do on Moon and why landing on South Pole of Moon is such an important aspect of this Moon mission.

Chandrayaan-3: Schedule, objectives, and equipment on board

Chandrayaan-3 is primarily a landing and roving mission. Unlike the partially successful Chandrayaan-2 (2019), there is no orbiter element this time.

The Chandrayaan-3 launching date is July 14. The launch time is 2:35 pm.

The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (LVM-3) will blast off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

The stated mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3 are:

To demonstrate safe and soft landing on Lunar Surface
To demonstrate Rover roving on the Moon
To conduct in-situ scientific experiments

"Chandrayaan-3 consists of an indigenous Lander module (LM), Propulsion module (PM) and a Rover with an objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for Inter planetary missions. The Lander will have the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the Rover which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility," says ISRO.

First to land on Moon's South Pole

The Chandrayaan-3 will the first to land on Moon's South Pole.

No human missions so far, including the human Moon missions of the United States, have taken any spacecraft to the South Pole. Therefore, the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on Moon's South Pole will be a demonstration of technical prowess and bold spacefaring ambitions.

"ISRO says that the lunar south pole is of special interest because parts of it remain permanently in shadow, raising the possibility of sampling Moon ice for the first time. Moreover, the large craters near the lunar south pole might contain clues to the composition of the early Solar System," notes TV Padma in an article for Nature.

Notably, studies conducted at South Pole will also be crucial for spacefaring ambitions as South Pole is the site where Artemis-III mission of the United States will land. Artemis-III is the third element of the Artemis space program of the United States in which humans would go to the Moon in next few years for the first time in over five decades.

"The south pole region has very different geology from the region around the [US] Apollo missions, so Chandrayaan-3 will provide a close-up view of an entirely new region of the Moon," said planetary geochemist Marc Norman of the Australian National University in Canberra to Nature.

This will be the first time any tests would be conducted on the South Pole, so data and conclusions drawn are set to be studied keenly across the world.

"Similar measurements were made by the US Apollo and Chinese Chang’e missions when they landed nearer the Moon’s equator, but this will be the first analysis of the environment at one of the poles. Thermal conductivity in particular depends on the grain size and packing of regolith — the surface layer of loose rubble — and so will be useful for characterizing the landing site, Norman says. Such data cannot be obtained from orbit," notes Nature.

Notably, this is India's second mission to South Pole. The Chandrayaan-1 (2008) was intentionally crashed into the South Pole that confirmed the presence of water ice in a major discovery.

Space.com says, "Chandrayaan 1, which launched in October 2008, sent a moon orbiter aloft in India's first-ever deep-space effort. The orbiter carried a 64-pound (29 kilograms) impactor probe that slammed hard (but intentionally) into the lunar surface near the south pole. The impactor detected water ice just before it crashed, a discovery matched by a NASA instrument aboard the Chandrayaan 1 orbiter called the Moon Mineralogy Mapper."