India Races Russia to Be First to Land on Moon’s South Pole
India’s lander is slated to touch down on the lunar south pole Wednesday, while Russia aims to land days earlier
NEW DELHI—India is in a race with Russia to become the first country to land a rover on the moon’s unexplored south pole, an achievement that would solidify its position as a major space power amid renewed global interest in lunar exploration.
India launched an unmanned spacecraft with a lander and rover in July. The Chandrayaan-3 mission, which means “moon craft” in Hindi, is India’s second bid to land on the moon. A landing attempt is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 23, to coincide with sunrise at the landing site, the Indian Space Research Organization, the country’s space agency, said.
If the lander is able to set down safely, it would be a moment of intense national pride.
“Chandrayaan-3 scripts a new chapter in India’s space odyssey. It soars high, elevating the dreams and ambitions of every Indian,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, after the launch.
But Russia might get there first. The country launched its Luna-25 lander on Aug. 11, its first mission to the moon in nearly 50 years, and is looking at a landing on Monday, Aug. 21, in the same challenging area. For Moscow, a return to the moon could signal its continued technological prowess in the face of sweeping global sanctions imposed in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine last year.
On Saturday, Russia’s state news agency reported that the Luna-25 faced an “abnormal situation” during a maneuver to enter a pre-landing orbit. “During the operation an emergency occurred on the space probe that did not allow it to perform the maneuver in accordance with the required parameters,” the country’s Roscosmos space agency said. The agency didn’t provide further details.
A successful moon landing for India would catapult it into an elite club of spacefaring nations. China became the third country to land there, after the U.S. and Russia, when it safely set down its Chang’e-4 probe on the far side of the moon in 2019.
The mission will showcase India’s “strong technical capabilities in the global space arena, and irrespective of its outcome, will reinforce India’s presence on the global map,” said Vishesh Rajaram, a managing partner at Speciale Invest, a technology-focused venture-capital firm with investments in Indian space startups.
India’s space activities are funded by a budget that is a fraction of what the U.S. or China can count on. In its latest budget, the country earmarked $1.5 billion for its Department of Space, which includes funding for ISRO. NASA’s budget stands at around $25 billion.
Ram Jakhu, professor of space law at Canada’s McGill University, says the Chandrayaan-3 will provide momentum to India’s space collaboration with other countries, including emerging economies that hope to develop their own space programs.
“Once you are successful, everyone wants to come to you,” said Jakhu. “Other nations would want to learn from India how to launch space missions at a modest cost.”
India’s travel time to the moon of about 40 days is longer than Russia’s because of the Chandrayaan-3’s heavier payload and more-limited fuel storage compared with the Luna-25. India sent its spacecraft on a route of loops around the Earth and moon to take advantage of gravity and economize on fuel.
In recent years, India’s space agency has begun earning revenue from launches carrying payloads for other countries. It accounts for only a small share of the commercial satellite launch market, which is dominated by a private U.S. firm, Elon Musk’s SpaceX. India has also been looking to boost its nascent private space industry, after opening up space activities to private firms in 2020.
Rajaram, the space investor, said India’s share in the global space economy is expected to grow to about 9% by 2030, from around 2% now. In November last year, Indian startup Skyroot Aerospace launched the country’s first privately built rocket.
The Indian and Russian moon missions are part of a flurry of lunar activities that are expected in coming years as space exploration increasingly splits into two camps.
India and many other nations have signed on to U.S.-backed principles for space exploration, while Russia plans to work with China on its plans for a lunar research station. U.S. law bars NASA from cooperating with China on space exploration.
NASA, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, plans a human spaceflight around the moon in late 2024. Beijing is aiming for a crewed lunar landing before 2030.
“The moon is back on everyone’s agenda both as a location for a sustainable human presence in space, and as a proving ground for future missions,” said David Alexander, Rice University physics and astronomy professor and director of its space institute.
The lunar south pole, in particular, is an area of intense interest for space scientists, Alexander said, because of the presence of water ice in craters, which could potentially help support a future human settlement. NASA said in 2018 that its instrument carried aboard India’s first moon mission had helped confirm the presence of ice.
But landing safely in the area, which sees less sunlight than the moon’s equator, isn’t a given. The terrain is tricky, with boulders and vast craters, Alexander said. In June, the director of Russia’s space agency put the likelihood of success at 70%.
Israel and Japan also have tried and failed to land at the lunar south pole. India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission crashed during its 2019 attempted landing there, a failure that ISRO’s analysis attributed to a software error governing the lander’s speed.
S. Somnath, the Indian space agency’s chairman, said the mission is using updated software that will ensure that if one system fails, another will work. Chandrayaan-3 is also equipped with sturdier landing legs, a bigger fuel tank and more solar panels.
If the probe is able to land, the accompanying rover will run a series of experiments exploring the landscape and mineral reserves.