LUNAR MISSIONS: STORIES OF TRIUMPH AND DISASTER

Only about half of the people living today were around when Apollo 11 first landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. I remember it vividly, including Neil Armstrong’s now-famous, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” speech, that we couldn’t actually make out in the live broadcast.

No humans have been back to the moon since Apollo 17 splashed down on December 17, 1972. Even so, we’ve seen 14 uncrewed lunar missions over the past half-century, along with a number of orbital missions.

We’ve also seen various uncrewed missions to other places in our solar system since the Apollo program. These have included Russia’s Venera missions to Venus, NASA’s Pioneer, Viking and Voyager programs and the New Horizons flyby of Pluto.

TECHNOLOGICAL TRIUMPH AND CATASTROPHIC FAILURE

Two new, uncrewed lunar missions made the news this week, with very different outcomes. One was a technological triumph, while the other was a catastrophic failure.

First the good news. India became the fourth nation in history to land on the moon when the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander touched down safely.

Chandrayaan is Sanskrit for “moon craft,” and the program’s mission is to demonstrate the ISRO’s “end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface,” according to its website. It will also be conducting a range of onsite scientific experiments.

PROPULSION MODULE MADE A SERIES OF INCREASINGLY WIDER ORBITS

India’s lunar mission began on July 14 with a rocket launch from India’s primary space facility in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The propulsion module made a series of increasingly wider Earth orbits before inserting itself into a lunar orbit on August 5.

This is an ingenious approach, because it avoids the enormous expenditure of energy the Apollo missions needed to break free of Earth’s orbit. As a result, the Chandrayaan program is much less expensive.

The lander, named Vikraam (Sanskrit for “brave”) ejected from the propulsion module and completed a series of precise maneuvers with its onboard thrusters to land safely on the lunar surface. The lander was carrying Pragyaan (Sanskrit for wisdom), a 26 kg (57 pound) rover.

FIRST MISSION TO TOUCH DOWN ON MOON’S SOUTH POLE

The Chandrayaan-3 is the first lunar mission to touch down on the moon’s unexplored South Pole. Scientists believe that craters in this region contain frozen water.

If this is true, future missions could convert the water into rocket fuel. It might even be used as drinking water for astronauts stationed on the moon.

Once the dust had settled, about a day after Vikraam’s touchdown, the Pragyaan rover exited Vikraam, sliding down its ramp toward the moon’s surface. Now that it’s on the ground, it’s maneuvering among the craters and boulders collecting data.

ROVER WILL STUDY CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF LUNAR SOIL

Using its alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS) and laser induced breakdown spectroscope (LIBS), Pragyaan will study the chemical composition of the lunar soil, technically called regolith.

Both Vikraam and Pragyaan use solar-powered batteries. A full day and night on the moon lasts about 29 days, giving the lander and rover about two weeks of daylight to complete their work.

After the sun sets, there will be two weeks of total darkness and extreme cold, with temperatures falling below -238˚C. Neither craft will function in those conditions, but it might be possible to reactivate them when the sun rises again; the IPSO certainly intends to try.

“VICTORY CRY OF A NEW, DEVELOPED INDIA”

The entire nation of India celebrated Chandrayaan-3’s success with dancing and drumming in the streets. India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi called the lunar mission “a victory cry of a new, developed India.”

Now for the bad news. Last Saturday, Russia’s space agency Roskosmos announced that its Luna-25 spacecraft had experienced “an abnormal situation” while entering its pre-landing lunar orbit, losing all contact with mission control.

As a result, “the apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon,” according to a Roskosmos statement. At that moment, Russia’s first lunar mission in 47 years became a catastrophic failure.

RUSSIAN SPACECRAFT “CEASED TO EXIST AS A RESULT OF A COLLISION”

In stark contrast with the celebrations in India, Russian state television gave Luna-25’s crash just 26 second of news coverage. It was the number eight story on the noon news that day.

Adding insult to injury for Russia, Luna-25 was involved in a space race with Chandrayaan-3 to reach the moon’s south pole. Instead of an opportunity to improve Russia’s global image, Luna-25 became a national embarrassment.

Although these are uncrewed lunar missions, space exploration always reminds us of the mythical archetype of the hero’s journey. We think of the plucky rovers that explore other worlds as friends, and we feel a tinge of sadness when we hear they’ve stopped working.

AND ANOTHER THING…

These lunar missions are part of the new story humanity needs about the world around us and our place in it. Confirming the presence of water on the moon’s surface and understanding its chemical composition will help us understand whether life is possible elsewhere or if we’re alone in the cosmos.

So, for the next couple of weeks, Vikraam will conduct experiments while Pragyaan completes its appointed rounds. They’ll transmit their findings back to India before the lunar nightfall, after which everyone will hope for the best when the sun rises again two weeks after that.

Russia’s president Vladimir Putin expressed his congratulations on the “impressive progress made by India in the area of science and technology.” Prime Minister Modi concluded his speech, saying, “This success belongs to all of humanity, and it will help more missions by other countries in the future.”

We always have more to learn if we dare to know.

Learn more:

Chanrayaan-3 is on its journey to the moon.

Russian Moon lander crash – what happened and what’s next?

DART Mission Follow-Up: A Smash Hit!

Artemis I Returns Home After Successful Mission

Mars Helicopter Ingenuity Takes Flight