Chandrayaan-3: Things You Probably Didn’t Know About India’s Space Mission

India has become the fourth nation to make a soft landing on the moon and the first to land on the moon’s South Pole.

On Wednesday, the Indian Space Research Agency (ISRO) succeeded in landing a spacecraft on the moon’s South Pole.

Here are four things to know about India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission:

1. Before India, China, the former Soviet Union and the United States were on the list of countries that have made a controlled landing on the surface of the moon.

2. The landing coincides with the start of a lunar day – a day on the Moon equals a little over four weeks on Earth and this will mean the lander and rover will have 14 days of sunlight to charge their batteries.

3. Moon is thought to hold important minerals but one of the major goals of Chandrayaan-3 is to hunt for water – scientists say the huge craters in the south pole region which are permanently in shadow hold ice which could support human habitation on the Moon in future.

4. The spacecraft LVM3 has two main parts: the propulsion module and the lander rover module. The propulsion module’s primary job is to transport the lander rover payload to the moon.