Chandrayaan-3's lander Vikram touched down in the lunar south pole region on the 23rd of August 2023. The landing made India the first country to reach the lunar south pole and the fourth country overall to soft land on the Moon, after the Soviet Union, the United States and China.
Why did the Chandrayaan-2 lander crash on the Moon?
Chandrayaan-2's lander Vikram lost contact during descent on the 6th of September 2019 after drifting off course near 2.1 kilometres altitude. Former ISRO chairman S. Somanath later named three causes: excess thrust from its five engines let errors build up, the lander could not turn quickly enough, and its 500 by 500 metre landing zone left little margin for error.
What did Chandrayaan-1 discover about water on the Moon?
Chandrayaan-1's Moon Impact Probe detected molecules with an atomic mass of 18, the signature of water, during its descent on the 12th of November 2008. The Moon Mineralogy Mapper aboard the orbiter confirmed water ice near the lunar poles three months later, and a 2018 reanalysis of that data by Dr. Shuai Li at the University of Hawaii reinforced the finding.
Who runs the Chandrayaan programme?
The Chandrayaan programme is run by ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organisation. The idea was first raised by the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1999 and carried forward by the Astronautical Society of India in 2000, before then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced the project on the 15th of August 2003.
What is planned for Chandrayaan-4?
Chandrayaan-4 is planned as ISRO's sample return mission, built from a Transfer Module, a Lander Module, an Ascender Module and a Reentry Module. It is designed to land near Statio Shiv Shakti, the same site where Chandrayaan-3's Vikram touched down, for a mission expected to last one lunar day.
How far did the Pragyan rover travel on the Moon?
The Pragyan rover drove 8 metres across the lunar surface after rolling down its ramp on the 23rd of August 2023. That made India only the third country to operate a rover on the Moon, after the Soviet Union and China.