India sends space rocket to the moon
India has sent an unmanned rocket into space. It was launched from near the Indian metropolis of Chennai, and is meant to land on the south side of the moon. The goal of the mission is to deploy a space vehicle there.
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00:00 On July 14th, 2023, an Indian rocket was launched to the Moon.
00:07 If the mission succeeds, India will go down in history as the fourth country,
00:11 along with the Soviet Union, the US and China, to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon.
00:17 It's a historic event, for the public and for the director of the Indian Space Research Organisation.
00:25 Our dear LVM3 has already put Chandrayaan-3 craft into the precise orbit around Earth.
00:32 The Chandrayaan spacecraft was on a stable circular path around the Earth,
00:36 before looping towards the Moon in a tight circular orbit.
00:40 While other missions take less than a week, this one will take over a month. Why so long?
00:46 India chooses to choreograph its travel, its orbit to the Moon, in a very different fashion, if you've noticed.
00:54 So we'll get there in, say, 40 days or 45 days. What's the hurry? You save fuel, you save money. I think it's poetic.
01:04 The Indian Space Research Organisation was founded back in 1969.
01:10 It cooperates with 400 to 500 Indian companies and start-ups.
01:17 Its business ventures include telecommunications and satellite technology, as well as meteorological observations and resource exploration.
01:28 In the long term, I see that our companies, both new space companies and old space companies,
01:35 will contribute not only to the space segments, but also, I would say, future infrastructure on the Moon,
01:44 that India will build, hopefully in collaboration with other Moon-faring nations.
01:51 How are international space programmes financed?
01:55 The US has the largest space budget at $24 billion.
02:00 China has the second largest, with over $11 billion.
02:05 The EU with $7.8 billion, and India is next with $1.6 billion, in front of Japan.
02:12 India is poised to complete a Moon landing before the EU and Japan.
02:17 In 2008, India successfully identified water deposits on the Moon for the first time with the Chandrayaan-2 probe.
02:29 By efficiently using its capital, India has succeeded in making a name for itself
02:34 as a reliable partner among the nations taking part in the international space race.
02:39 Each of our planetary missions, whether it's Chandrayaan missions or Mangalyaan missions,
02:44 we have payloads which are from other countries, including the United States.
02:49 If you might recall on Chandrayaan-2, the discovery of water molecules, ice water,
02:55 water ice on the Moon was made by a NASA instrument that flew on Chandrayaan.
03:00 The spacecraft will orbit the Moon at an altitude of 100 kilometres, before slowly descending to the Moon's south side.
03:09 From there, it will release the lunar lander, which will then start collecting data.
03:14 It will stay there forever, but it has a life of one single lunar day, which is about 14 Earth days.
03:23 And the rover will sort of potter about in the surrounding terrain and do some geological, seismological,
03:32 and study the mineralogy of the place. It will also be looking at Moon quakes.
03:38 If the landing is successful, it will be a major boon not only for the Indian Space Research Organisation,
03:45 but for the people of India as well.
03:48 The public is ecstatic. Everybody will be glued to their televisions.
03:53 It will be like a cricket final, or you could even compare it to the premiere of a great Bollywood film.
03:59 The Moon landings were turning points in US and Russian history.
04:05 It could be similar for India.
04:07 For its people, it would be a great achievement on the path to joining the upper echelons of international space research
04:14 and becoming an economic world power.