The Month of ISRO

As a growing space power, India has been inspiring the world.

Hello Earthlings, 

It’s been quite some time since you last heard from me — and a lot has happened over the past few months. I started a new job as Space.com’s Astronomy Editor; the effects of climate change have shrouded us in some frightening air pollution; July marked the hottest month since the late 1880s; Twitter is now called X (don’t even get me started on this); and, most recently, India has absolutely been smashing the space game. 

Allow me to elaborate on that last bit. 

First of all, as science reporter Sharmila Kuthunur so wonderfully put it last month: “This August belongs to India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission. We’re all just living in it.”

In July of this year, India launched two science explorers — a lander named Vikram and a rover named Pragyan — into space. Their destination? The moon. Collectively, this mission is known as Chandrayaan-3, which translates from Sanskrit to “mooncraft” or “moon vehicle.” 

But the plot of Chandrayaan-3 really thickened last month when, on Aug. 23, Vikram successfully landed on the lunar surface. I actually watched the landing happen live and, believe me when I tell you, mission control’s excitement was electric.

I mean, here’s a screenshot I took of ISRO’s livestream right after the landing was confirmed.

India as a space power

What makes Chandrayaan-3 so special is that this achievement not only made India the fourth nation to land on the moon, but also the first to land near the moon’s south pole. 

The moon’s south pole is a highly sought-after place for space agencies because it's thought to hold a lot of water-ice. The region is covered in shadowed craters, for instance, and is super cold. These are both great features to preserve such a substance. And actually, for these same reasons, landing near the moon’s south pole is no simple task. 

The lunar south pole’s pockmarked surface can prove hazardous to landers, and sections permanently shadowed from the sun can act like dead zones for spacecraft. For example, Russia’s Luna-25 lander was heading to the same spot (it was even supposed to touch down on the same day as Vikram) but ended up crashing!

Water on the moon is of particular interest to scientists for two major reasons. First off, future lunar astronauts (and perhaps even lunar inhabitants) can drink it — and second, it could be used in making rocket propellant right on the moon. 

So with all this in mind, India’s Chandrayaan-3 success is a rather big deal. 

Since landing, Vikram released Pragyan from its grips, Pragyan has been roaming around the lunar surface and science instruments on the rover have been doing things like taking the moon’s temperature and parsing the lunar regolith’s composition (sulfur was found, which is interesting). 

Pragyan did almost get trapped by one of those hazardous lunar south pole craters, but avoided calamity by simply altering its path.

Plus, as if lunar celebrations weren’t enough, on Sep. 2, ISRO (the Indian Space Research Organization) hit the mark yet again by successfully launching the Aditya-L1 solar mission. Aditya, which translates from Sanskrit to “sun,” will travel about 1.5 million kilometers from our planet to a point between Earth and the sun known as Lagrange Point 1, or L1. There, it’s planned to study the sun’s atmosphere.

That’s a pic from ISRO of Aditya-L1 lifting off.

It’s honestly thrilling to see ISRO making headlines across the world. I remember when I wrote an obituary for India’s trailblazing Mangalyaan mission, which sent an orbiter around the Red Planet that outlasted its expected lifetime by about seven and a half years. Mangalyaan was successful despite being built on a budget of $74 million, officially announced India as a contender in the interplanetary game and proved that space exploration needn’t be solely based on wealth, power and privilege. 

Even Aditya-L1 and Chandrayaan-3 were only constructed with budgets of $46 million and $74 million respectively. For context, Christopher Nolan’s budget for Interstellar was $165 million and NASA’s budget for its Artemis moon program falls well into the billions.

We’re still Earthlings

Before signing off for this week, I also wanted to point out a science publication I recommend delving into when you have the time.

Just last week, I came across a jarring study published in the journal International Social Work that looked at how an increase in extreme weather events (thanks to human-induced climate change) is linked to an increase in child marriage rates. 

“What these disasters do is exacerbate existing problems of gender inequality and poverty that lead families to child marriage as a coping mechanism,” one of the study researchers said in a statement.

It reminded me of a stunningly written, harrowing article I read some time ago on Atmos about this very topic. The piece is called “Pakistan’s Climate Crisis of Child Marriage,” and includes an interview with a father who was all but forced to sell his daughters into marriage because climate change-induced storms removed all other prospects for his family.

I still think about the final sentence: “What a world: where baby girls have babies, where climate change forces fathers to sell their daughters. Other options exist — if only world leaders would open their eyes.”

This felt like a stark reminder that reaching for the stars doesn’t mean we’re finished watching over Earth.

Talk soon, 

Mona