The following is an extract from our monthly Launchpad newsletter, in which resident space expert Leah Crane journeys through the solar system and beyond. You can sign up for Launchpad for free聽here.
Over the past several weeks, the destination on everybody鈥檚 mind has been the moon. Russia鈥檚 Luna 25 lander launched on 11 August and then crash-landed on 19 August. India鈥檚 Chandrayaan-3 mission, which launched back in July and has been orbiting the moon for a while, successfully put its lander down on the surface on 23 August. And on 6 September, Japan launched its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon. So why all this activity now? And if it鈥檚 a race (which it sort of is), who鈥檚 winning?
But first: Why the moon? The short answer is, it鈥檚 the easiest place in our solar system to get to by a long shot. At this point, getting into Earth orbit is trivial 鈥� about 40 per cent of the countries in the world have operated a satellite. But until now, only three have had successful soft landings on the moon: The US, the Soviet Union and China. Historically, landing on the moon has been the way to prove yourself as a force to be reckoned with in space. It鈥檚 also seen as a jumping-off point for developing missions to Mars or any other world.
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For Russia, it鈥檚 been聽a long road. Luna 24, the recent mission鈥檚 predecessor, took place in 1976. At the time, the Soviet Union was unquestionably a superpower in space exploration, but since then its space industry has been in slow decline, punctuated by high-profile rocket explosions and failures.
But in the 2000s, Russia was ready to get back to proving itself, with a number of international collaborations in place to develop new missions. Among those was a tentative plan to develop a lunar lander with India, continuing a Soviet-era history of working with the country. That potential collaboration fell apart, and eventually Russia and India each launched their own separate landers. 鈥淭he Soviets kickstarted the Indian space programme, and now we have a situation where India abandoned the project with the Soviets because it was going nowhere and launched their own mission by themselves,鈥� says historian at California State University, Long Beach. This knotty history is part of why these particular landings have felt more like a head-to-head race to the moon than the聽numerous other missions聽heading there this year.
For Russia, losing this race so dramatically is sort of a big deal. Luna 25 was supposed to be a triumphant return to the moon, almost a 鈥済imme鈥�, given that it used the same architecture that landed its predecessor successfully in the 鈥�70s. But it just didn鈥檛 work out. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e using the same technology that they鈥檝e been using for decades and decades, and the question is, can they innovate anymore?鈥� says Jenks.
For India, winning the race is an equally big deal 鈥� not necessarily because they beat Russia, but because they managed to get to the moon successfully on their own. It demonstrated that India鈥檚 space programme is ascendant, just as Russia鈥檚 continues its slump.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has done a lot of things right. Whereas the lack of consistent funding for the Russian space agency Roscosmos has led to talent being spread thin and technology reused, ISRO has taken its similarly small funding allocation and streamlined everything. Chandrayaan-3 cost about $75 million, less than the price of a commercial aeroplane. And it went all the way to the moon, and set down the small rover that took the above image of the lander on the lunar surface. That still blows my mind a little bit.
The mission itself is fairly modest, with a few scientific instruments and a small rover, every piece carefully checked and remodelled after the failure of the聽Chandrayaan-2 lander聽in 2019. 鈥淭hese are very cost-effective missions,鈥� said ISRO chairman S. Somanath after the landing. 鈥淣o one in the world can do it like we do.鈥� The mission鈥檚 success has positioned India as a capable up-and-comer in the space industry, and ISRO has big future plans.
Slowly, the space industry in India is opening up to private entrepreneurs and businesses after having been a government-only venture for decades, so I think it鈥檚 safe to expect things to continue to get bigger, better and faster. ISRO already has plans for a solar orbiter, a second Mars craft and India鈥檚 first human mission to space 鈥� and that鈥檚 just in the next year.
It seems likely that at least a few other nations will follow in India鈥檚 footsteps. Few countries have visited the moon, but many have space agencies, and some of those agencies 鈥� such as those in Israel, South Korea and Japan 鈥� are getting increasingly ambitious. As far as I鈥檓 concerned, that鈥檚 a good thing. The more places with space capabilities, the greater humanity鈥檚 capability as a whole. And if space exploration is going to be sustained, it needs to be both collaborative and competitive. As we鈥檝e seen in the last couple of weeks, not every mission is going to succeed. The more irons there are in the fire, the better.
