Wednesday, 20 September 2023 – 10:01 WIB
LIVE Techno – Between 1969 and 1972, the United States (US) landed 12 astronauts on the Moon as part of the Apollo program, which was created to beat the Soviet Union to the Moon in the heat of the Cold War.
Now, more than 50 years after the first humans landed, interest in visiting our celestial neighbors is once again on the rise.
However, this time, space exploration countries are targeting the South Pole of the Moon, which has become a hotspot for short-term and long-term space exploration, citing the Live Science page, Wednesday, September 20 2023.
Why focus on this region? Because there, scientists think there are countless areas that are permanently dark, potentially holding large reserves of frozen water that can be mined to support life and rocket fuel.
But this is just speculation, no one knows whether there is much water there, according to Martin Barstow, a professor of astrophysics and space sciences at the University of Leicester in England, “And that’s why it’s important to check,” he added.
India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft.
Recently, many countries have tried to do this. Russia’s Luna 25 spacecraft attempted to land near the south pole on Aug. 19, but crashed after erratic communications following an orbital maneuver created a 33-foot (10-meter) wide crater in the southeastern region of the Moon.
A rare success in the landing attempt occurred on August 23, when India became the first country to land near the Moon’s South Pole with the Chandrayaan-3 mission. There, the country’s robotic lander-rover duo spent a day exploring the nearby region.
The solar-powered explorers confirmed the presence of sulfur, an infrastructure building block that could be key to future camps, measured the moon’s temperature by inserting a probe into the ground for the first time and likely detected earthquakes on Earth’s natural satellite.
In 2026, China plans to send the Chang’e-7 spacecraft on an ambitious attempt to the Moon’s South Pole. According to the mission plan, the spacecraft will consist of an orbiter, lander, rover and a small flying probe that will hunt for water ice in dark areas.
Later this decade, NASA’s (Aeronautics and Space Administration) Artemis lunar program aims to land crews near the South Pole for week-long missions, with the Australian rover supporting one of those missions.
2023-09-20 03:01:01
#Russia #China #India #Europe #Seize #South #Pole
