The race to the moon is heating up

India's Chandrayaan-3 mission

Chandrayaan-3 means "moon spacecraft" in Sanskrit, according to science news site Phys.org . The spacecraft was launched to land on the moon, following India's successful lunar orbiter launch in 2008 and its failed moon landing in 2019.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission launched in mid-July and has circled Earth several times to gain the speed needed for the journey. The spacecraft dropped its Vikram lander on the south polar region of the moon on August 23, making India the first country to successfully land in that region.

Vikram lander on the lunar surface

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)

The mission is the latest milestone in an ambitious but relatively low-cost space program that helped India become the first Asian country to put a spacecraft into orbit around Mars in 2014.

The Indian Space Research Organisation also plans to launch a three-day crewed mission into Earth orbit in 2024.

Indian rover begins exploring the moon after historic landing

Russia's Moon Mission

The launch of the Luna-25 lunar lander on August 11 was Russia's first mission in nearly 50 years and marked the start of Moscow's new lunar project. The craft was set to land on the lunar surface and stay there for a year to collect samples and analyze soil.

The Soyuz-2.1b rocket carrying Luna-25 was launched from Russia's Amur region in August.

The Russian space agency Roscosmos said on August 16 that the lander was successfully placed into lunar orbit, but three days later it "ceased to exist after a collision with the lunar surface."

Russian President Vladimir Putin is pushing to increase space cooperation with China after relations with the West further frayed since Moscow launched a military campaign in Ukraine in 2022, according to Phys.org .

Russia's Luna-25 probe crashes into the moon

China's Great Leap Forward

China is pursuing plans to land a crewed mission on the moon by 2030 and build a base there. The world's second-largest economy has invested billions of dollars in its space program in an effort to catch up with the United States and Russia.

China was the third country to put a human into orbit in 2003, and its Tiangong space station is considered the "crown jewel" of its space program. China has also landed rovers on Mars and the moon.

Simulation of China's base on the moon

CGTN SCREENSHOT

China's Chang'e-4 probe landed on the far side of the moon in 2019. A year later, China became the second country to plant a flag on the moon, with the Chang'e-5 mission. That lunar landing brought back rock and soil samples to Earth, the first time such a feat had been done in more than four decades.

In 2023, China announced plans for an internationally coordinated lunar exploration program. It invited countries to participate in the Chang'e-8 mission, scheduled for 2028. Azerbaijan announced its participation in China's program to build an international research station on the moon, which was initiated in 2021 with Russia. According to the joint statement, China and Azerbaijan will cooperate extensively in implementing the program, including the installation of scientific equipment, personnel training, and scientific and technological experiments.

Artemis - NASA's new moon mission - why is it important?

NASA's Artemis

NASA's Artemis 3 mission is expected to return humans to the moon by 2025.

Under the Artemis program, NASA is planning a series of increasingly complex missions to return to the moon and establish a long-term presence, with the goal of being able to develop and test technologies for the subsequent journey to Mars.

Artemis 1 sent an unmanned spacecraft around the moon in 2022. Artemis 2, scheduled for November 2024, will do the same with a crew on board.

SpaceX launched Starship from its base in Boca Chica, Texas (USA) on November 18.

NASA sees the moon as a stopping point for missions to Mars and has signed a deal with Finnish mobile company Nokia to set up a 4G network there.

However, there are doubts that the Artemis 3 mission may not take humans to the moon. That will depend on whether key elements are completed on time.

Billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX has won a contract to provide a lunar lander based on the Starship model, but the system is not yet ready.

In 2023, SpaceX launched Starship twice, both of which ended in explosions, although the second flight had a longer duration than the first.

New players

Simulation of the SLIM spacecraft landing on the lunar surface

Recent technological advances have reduced the cost of space missions and opened the way for new players in the public and private sectors to participate. But getting to the moon is no easy task.

Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL launched its Beresheet lunar lander in 2019, but it crashed. In April 2023, Japan's ispace became the latest company to try and fail in its historic attempt to land a private lander on the moon.

What does Japan expect from the "Moon Shooter" probe?

In September, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully launched the Smart Lander for Lunar Studies (SLIM) into orbit and is expected to land on the moon in January or February 2024 if all goes well. Two US companies, Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines, also planned to launch but were postponed to around early 2024.

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