On August 23rd, India’s Chandrayaan 3 became the first satellite to land on the south pole of the moon. The objectives of Chandrayaan 3 were to soft land (or land without causing damage to the spacecraft) on the the moon to expand our knowledge on the composition of the moon. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) wants to locate craters on the moon that contain water, which could help produce rocket fuel. If astronauts can manufacture fuel on the moon’s surface, the ISRO can take advantage of the moon’s lower gravity to launch crafts from the moon. The ISRO also intends to find peaks in the south pole of the moon that receive constant or near-constant sunlight, which can generate power for other space missions. 

Chandrayaan 3 is the third Indian moon mission. The mission’s predecessors were Chandrayaan 1 and Chandrayaan 2. The objective of Chandrayaan 1 was to orbit a spacecraft around the moon, which was deemed a success. Chandrayaan 2’s goal was to achieve a soft landing on the moon, but failed, since it crash landed on the moon.

Shockingly, the entire cost of the mission was less than that of a Hollywood movie, while most moon missions by space research organizations cost millions to billions of dollars. For example, Interstellar, a movie about space exploration, costed 165 million dollars. Chandrayaan 3 only costed around 74 million dollars. “India’s successful moon mission is not just India’s alone,” said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We have all just witnessed the next leap in space exploration.