Space is hard, as the saying goes.
But on August 23, an Indian spacecraft, for the first time, successfully landed on the surface of the moon.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission, which launched July 14, delivered the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover to the south pole of the moon, a region thought to contain water ice (SN: 5/24/22).
Such reservoirs of water ice would provide a crucial source of not only drinking water for any future lunar inhabitants but also hydrogen for fuel. This was the country’s second attempt at a lunar landing, following the crash of Chandrayaan-2’s lander in 2019 (SN: 9/20/19).
2023-08-23 11:29:42
Article from www.sciencenews.org
