Why the world keeps returning to Chandamama

July 16, the day after India’s Chandrayaan-2 lifts off from Sriharikota, marks the 50th year of the launch of Nasa’s Apollo-11, the mission that took US astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to Moon. Half a century later, why Chandrayaan-2? Are we reinventing the wheel?

Similar questions were raised before Chandrayaan-1 mission (which involved only an orbiter) in 2008. But India’s first Moon mission silenced critics when it found evidence of water ice on lunar surface. The mission cost India Rs 386cr — a fraction of what the US and the USSR had spent on similar missions. Chandrayaan-2, involving an orbiter, a lander and a rover this time, will expand the ambit of India’s first lunar probe and perhaps have some surprise finds.

The first object from Earth to kiss Moon was USSR’s Luna-2 craft, on Sept 14, 1959. Under the Luna programme, USSR sent a series of robotic craft missions to Moon between 1959 and 1976, which cost $4.5 billion.

Joining the Moon race, US started the Apollo programme and 10 years later, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to step on Moon, on July 20, 1969. From 1968 to 1972, Nasa launched 11 spaceflights to the Moon and a total of 12 astronauts walked on Moon. The missions cost the $25 billion, considered to be the most expensive lunar programme.

A GSLV-MIII carrying Chandrayaan-2 will lift off on July 15, and its lunar-rover module, which will cover a distance of 384,400 km to reach the lunar orbit, is expected to land on the south pole of Moon, which remains virtually unexplored.

The pioneers are also getting back to the game. Fifty years after the Moon race during the Cold War era, the US and Russia have revived their Moon programmes. China and Israel, too, have the jumped on the lunar bandwagon.

In May this year, Nasa awarded $253 million to three US firms to develop robotic landers that will carry payloads to Moon as a prelude to its Artemis programme to return astronauts to Moon by 2024. Russia also plans to land cosmonauts on Moon by 2030. In January this year, China’s Chang’e-4 probe made a historic landing on the far (dark) side of Moon that always faces away from Earth and has a rugged terrain with several impact craters. After Chang’e-4 success, China announced plans to follow up with three more missions, laying the groundwork for a lunar base.

In February this year, Israel launched its first lunar mission ‘Beresheet’ with the help of SpaceX launcher Falcon 9. Though the module, a joint venture of startup SpaceIL and state-run space agency, successfully reached the lunar orbit, it crashed on Moon. A determined Israel has now started working on Beresheet 2.0 programme.

Private players, too, are eyeing Earth’s natural satellite. The Elon Musk-led SpaceX has unveiled plans for a spacecraft that would allow the company to build a base on Moon and colonise Mars. Jeff Bezos owned Blue Origin is working on a spacecraft (Blue Moon) that will be used to transport scientific equipment and humans to Moon by 2024. For mankind, the love for Moon or Chandamama never wanes.