Congratulations are in order to India’s space agency, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), on their successful moon landing with Chandrayaan-3. This is a great achievement for any organization and India well deserves their feeling of pride in the accomplishment.

A soft touchdown on the moon is a challenging task every time it is done and requires that a great many systems in a lengthy sequence of events perform perfectly. Presently, the rover has deployed properly and is in motion.

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is comprised of a propulsion module, a lander and a rover. Each is equipped with scientific instrumentation.

Lander

• Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) will measure the thermal conductivity and temperature of the lunar surface.
• Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) will measure the seismicity around the landing site.
• Langmuir Probe (LP) will estimate the near-surface plasma density over time.

Rover

• Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) will derive the chemical composition and infer the mineralogical composition of the lunar surface.
• Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) will determine the elemental composition (Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, Fe) of lunar soil and rocks around the lunar landing site.

Propulsion module

• Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) will study spectral and polarimetric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit in the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength range (1–1.7 μm [3.9×10⁻⁵–6.7×10⁻⁵ in]).

Russia’s Roscosmos Space Agency suffered a setback in its moon landing ambitions with the loss of its Luna-25 lander. Launched August 10 from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in southeastern Russia, contact with the craft was lost after a command was sent for it to lower its orbit around the moon. By August 20 Roscosmos had to conclude that the vehicle had impacted the moon. This was the first Russian attempt to land a probe on the moon since Luna-24 in 1976. The goal was to land at the 100-kilometre-wide Boguslawsky crater.

Source: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University.

The science payload aboard Luna-25 was substantial-

• ADRON-LR, active neutron and gamma-ray analysis of regolith
• ARIES-L, measurement of plasma in the exosphere
• LASMA-LR, laser mass-spectrometer
• LIS-TV-RPM, infrared spectrometry of minerals and imaging
• PmL, measurement of dust and micro-meteorites
• THERMO-L, measurement of the thermal properties of regolith
• STS-L, panoramic and local imaging
• Laser retroreflector, Moon libration and ranging experiments