The Dark Side of the Moon, 23 August 2023: The portion of Chandrayaan-3’s landing site taken after by Vikram Lander after the successful landing.
| Photo Credit: ISRO/The Hindu

India’s space agency is attempting to land a spacecraft on the moon’s south pole, a mission that could advance India’s space ambitions and expand knowledge of lunar water ice, potentially one of the moon’s most valuable resources.

Here’s what’s known about the presence of frozen water on the moon – and why space agencies and private companies see it as a key to a moon colony, lunar mining and potential missions to Mars.

How did scientists find water on the moon?

As early as the 1960s, before the first Apollo landing, scientists had speculated that water could exist on the moon. Samples the Apollo crews returned for analysis in the late 1960s and early 1970s appeared to be dry.

In 2008, Brown University researchers revisited those lunar samples with new technology and found hydrogen inside tiny beads of volcanic glass. In 2009, a NASA instrument aboard the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Chandrayaan-1 probe detected water on the moon’s surface.

Also Read | With moon now in India’s orbit, focus shifts to Pragyan rover

In the same year, another NASA probe that hit the south pole found water ice below the moon’s surface. An earlier NASA mission, the 1998 Lunar Prospector, had found evidence that the highest concentration of water ice was in the south pole’s shadowed craters.

Why is water on the moon important?

Scientists are interested in pockets of ancient water ice because they could provide a record of lunar volcanoes, material that comets and asteroids delivered to Earth, and the origin of oceans.

If water ice exists in sufficient quantities, it could be a source of drinking water for moon exploration and could help cool equipment.

It could also be broken down to produce hydrogen for fuel and oxygen to breathe, supporting missions to Mars or lunar mining.

Also Read | Not just sons of Tamil Nadu but State’s soil itself contributed to Moon mission

The 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty prohibits any nation from claiming ownership of the moon. There is no provision that would stop commercial operations.

A U.S.-led effort to establish a set of principles for moon exploration and the use of its resources, the Artemis Accords, has 27 signatories. China and Russia have not signed.

What makes the south pole especially tricky?

Attempted landings on the moon have failed before. Russia’s Luna-25 craft had been scheduled to land on the South Pole this week but spun out of control on approach and crashed on Sunday. The south pole – far from the equatorial region targeted by previous missions, including the crewed Apollo landings – is full of craters and deep trenches.

ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 mission is on track for an attempted landing on Wednesday, the space agency has said. A previous Indian mission failed in 2019 to safely land near the area targeted by Chandrayaan-3.

Both the United States and China have planned missions to the south pole.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launches the LVM3-M4/Chandrayaan-3 Moon Mission, lift off from the second launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre-SHAR, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on July 14, 2023
| Photo Credit: B. JOTHI RAMALINGAM

 India became the first nation to successfully land a craft on the Moon’s south pole on August 23, the latest milestone in a renewed push for lunar exploration that has drawn in both the world’s top space powers and new players.

New Delhi’s attempt came days after the crash-landing on the Moon of Russia’s Luna-25 probe.

Here is the latest on various missions to the celestial body:

India’s Chandrayaan-3

Chandrayaan-3, which means “Mooncraft” in Sanskrit, follows India’s successful launch of a probe into lunar orbit in 2008 and a failed lunar landing in 2019.

The mission launched in mid-July and orbited Earth several times to build up the necessary speed for its journey.

Following Wednesday’s successful landing, a solar-powered rover will explore the surface of the relatively unmapped lunar south pole and transmit data to Earth over its two-week lifespan.

The mission is the latest milestone in an ambitious but relatively cheap space programme that saw India become the first Asian nation to put a craft into orbit around Mars in 2014.

The Indian Space Research Organisation is also slated to launch a three-day crewed mission into Earth’s orbit by next year.

Russia’s Luna

The launch of Luna-25 on August 11 was the first such Russian mission in almost 50 years and marked the beginning of Moscow’s new lunar project.

On August 16, the lander was successfully placed in the Moon’s orbit but three days later, it “ceased to exist following a collision with the Moon’s surface”, space agency Roscomos said.

Also rea: Explained | What the fate of Luna 25 means for Russia

It had been set to land on the Moon’s surface and remain there for one year to collect samples and analyse soil.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been working to strengthen space cooperation with China after ties with the West broke down following the start of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Moscow had hoped to build on the legacy of the Soviet-era Luna programme, marking a return to independent lunar exploration in the face of financial troubles and corruption scandals at its space programme.

China’s great leap

China is pursuing plans to send a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030 and build a base there.

The world’s second-largest economy has invested billions of dollars in its military-run space programme in a push to catch up with the United States and Russia.

China was the third country to place humans in orbit in 2003 and its Tiangong rocket is the crown jewel of its space programme, which has also landed rovers on Mars and the Moon.

The unmanned Chang’e-4 rocket landed on the far side of the Moon in 2019. Another robot mission to the near side raised the Chinese flag there in 2020.

That Moon landing brought rock and soil samples back to Earth, the first time that has been done in more than four decades.

NASA’s Artemis

NASA’s Artemis 3 mission is set to return humans to the Moon in 2025.

Under the Artemis program, NASA is planning a series of missions of increasing complexity to return to the Moon and build up a sustained presence so it can develop and test technologies for an eventual journey to Mars.

Artemis 1 flew an uncrewed spacecraft around the Moon in 2022.

Artemis 2, planned for November 2024, will do the same with crew on board.

NASA sees the Moon as a pitstop for missions to Mars and has done a deal with Finnish mobile firm Nokia to set up a 4G network there.

However it has said the Artemis 3 mission may not land humans on the Moon. That will depend on whether certain key elements are finished in time.

Elon Musk’s firm SpaceX won the contract for a landing system based on a version of its prototype Starship rocket, which remains far from ready.

An orbital test flight of the uncrewed Starship ended in a dramatic explosion in April.

New players

Recent technological progress has reduced the cost of space missions and opened the way for new players in the public and private sectors to get involved.

But getting to the Moon is not an easy task. Israeli non-profit organisation SpaceIL launched its Beresheet lunar lander in 2019 but it crashed.

And in April this year, Japan’s ispace was the latest company to try, and fail, at the historic bid to put a private lunar lander on the Moon.

Two U.S. companies, Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines, are set to try later in the year.