Chinese scientist rejects India’s claim to south pole moon landing.
India and China’s competition has spilled over into space. With the successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the moon last month, India became the first country to place a spacecraft near the lunar south pole, breaking China’s previous record.
However, a leading Chinese scientist has now declared that the Chandrayaan-3 landing site is not at the lunar south pole, is not in the lunar south pole region, and is not even close to the lunar south pole region.
The creator of China’s lunar exploration programme, Ouyang Ziyuan, told the Chinese-language Science Times newspaper that the Chandrayaan-3 landing site, at 69 degrees south latitude, was nowhere near the pole, defined as between 88.5 and 90 degrees.
On Earth, 69 degrees south is within the Antarctic Circle, but the lunar counterpart is significantly closer to the pole.
Also read: Chandrayaan-3 and Prospects for Asia
As Chinese scientist rejects India’s claim to south pole moon landing, according to Ouyang, the Chandrayaan-3 was 619 kilometres (385 miles) away from the polar area.
Following the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3, Pang Zhihao, a Beijing-based senior space researcher, stated that China possessed far superior technology, according to Bloomberg.
“China’s space program has been capable of sending orbiters and landers directly into Earth-Moon transfer orbit since the launch of Chang’e-2 in 2010, a maneuver that India has yet to deliver given the limited capacity of its launch vehicles. The engine that China used is also far more advanced,” Zhihao said.
Nonetheless, India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission travelled considerably further south than any other satellite. ISRO is currently hoping to make contact with the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover on Chandrayaan-3.
The Indian space agency will continue efforts to resurrect the Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover until the next sunset on the Moon on October 6.
China’s Chang’e 4, the first spacecraft to arrive on the moon’s far side in 2019, touched down 45 degrees south. In 1968, Surveyor 7, an unmanned NASA spacecraft, arrived at the moon at roughly 41 degrees south.
Both the United States and China are looking to the region for future plans to send people to the moon for the first time since NASA’s Apollo programme ended half a century ago.
