why is it so impressive that India landed on the South side of the Moon?
In: 7033
Because it’s really difficult, and both a test and a show of the capabilities of the people working at the organisation that does this.
It’s like being the fourth person to break an old world record in a sport. Sure, three people HAVE done it before you, but many more tired and didn’t. It’s still a massive achievement that other’s can’t reproduce.
See Russia’s recent fumble. Even nations that have the historical capability can’t do it if they let their space sector decline. It sets a bar.
Also, I’m not being fair to the Indians here. They are the first to land on the moon’s poles. I don’t know how much more difficult it was in practice than other landings, but no one else did it regardless.
The lunar South Pole contains water ice, which will be crucial to colonization missions and establishing a base. Sending water to Lunar residents (Lunians? Lunars? Lunatics?) would be extremely expensive. It’s much easier if they can just mine up some ice, thaw it out and drink it. Also, water contains hydrogen and oxygen. Guess what rocket fuel is made of. Liquid hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen in the water could also be used for air to breathe, but we would still need to import some nitrogen to make the air similar to Earth’s.
It’s also a major achievement because the South Pole is dark and covered in deep craters, making landing difficult. Russia crashed on the lunar South Pole just two days ago!
It’s impressive for a bunch of reasons:
It’s literally rocket science
It takes years of trial and error and a LOT of resources to get to this scientific [and spacecraft production] goal
ISRO Chairman S Somanath says almost 1,000 engineers and scientists worked on the mission
India has demonstrated it’s technical ability to the world
Some “other guys” plugged their lander a few days ago, btw
1. Indian missions are cheap. A typical Indian mission costs less than making Hollywood movie.
2. South side of the moon is hard to land on. India is first to land there. Lots to explore there.
3. Always good to have more countries invent technology. More technologies make humanity more robust.
The south side is in ~~permanent~~ darkness a lot of the time, so very cold.
This means that deep craters are in permanent shadow and contain frozen water.
If further space exploration takes place, the ice could be a very important resource, as a way to make hydrogen for space exploration launched from the lower gravity of the moon.
Also, it shows India as a nation capable of such a feat, with all the associated money, resources, skills, knowledge and technology. Not many countries have landed on the moon before, only ~~Russia~~ the USSR, the United States Of America and China.