The Chandrayaan-3 space mission made history Wednesday by making India the fourth country to reach the satellite. The milestone comes just days after a failed Russian mission trying to get ahead of the race to reach the satellite’s coveted south pole.
Development of Chandrayaan-3 followed the same path as previous missions for the Indian space program, which has built a reputation for cheap launches of dozens of satellites.
This mission had an estimated cost of about 75 million dollars (about 68.8 million euros at current exchange rates), a figure that many Indian users of social networks have been highlighting in recent days, as it is less than the budget of the film Interstellar, winner of an Oscar award in 2015, and which is estimated at around 160 million dollars, according to the specialized portal IMDb.
The price of the latest Indian mission is even lower than that of its predecessor Chandrayaan-2, which exceeded 100 million dollars (91.8 million euros), since unlike this one it does not have an orbiter.
This probe, made up of a lander and an explorer, has practically the same objectives as the previous mission, although its structure was reinforced to correct the errors that caused Chandrayaan-2 to end up crashing into the lunar surface in 2019 while trying to land on the moon. .
The mission plans to carry out various scientific experiments on the ground and analyze the lunar surface during the 14 Earth days – equivalent to half a day on the satellite – that it remains in operation.
With its arrival, the Indian probe also opens a new stage of exploration of the Moon, which is marked by the recent increase in interest from various countries to resume their lunar programs to send manned missions or establish bases on the Moon, as is the case from the United States, Russia or China, as an intermediate point to reach other levels of space.
A small group that Japan also wants to join this year, with another brief mission that will take off from Earth on August 26, months after the failure of the Japanese aerospace firm Ispace, which tried unsuccessfully last April to become the first private mission to land on the rugged lunar surface.
