Chandrayaan-3: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief S Somanath, in an exclusive interview with India TV, spoke on several aspects of Chandrayaan-3 which created history on Wednesday and the future plan of the Indian space body.
While speaking on the criticality of the lunar project, he explained why the ISRO chose a tough area of the Moon - the South Pole to land. Somanath said there were several reasons to choose the location, including to find what is the core of the Moon, whether it is solid or liquid and why there is less magnetic force on the Moon.
"We have gone closer to the South Pole which is 70 degrees almost. The South Pole has a specific advantage with respect to being less illuminated by the Sun. There is a potential to have more scientific content. Scientists who are working on the Moon showed a lot of interest in the South Pole because ultimately human beings want to go and create colonies and then travel beyond. So the best place is something we are looking for and the South Pole has the potential to be that," he elaborated.
He asserted he got full support from the government and state-run companies associated with the lunar project. "We never faced fund crunch and our requirements were fulfilled by the government whenever needs have arisen," he added.
Earlier in a giant leap for its space programme, India's Moon mission Chandrayaan-3, which cost Rs 615 crore, touched down on the lunar South Pole at 6:04 pm on Wednesday, propelling the country to an exclusive club of four and making it the first country to land on the uncharted surface. With this touchdown on the Moon after a flawless 41-day voyage to script history and less than a week after a Russian lander headed to the lunar South Pole crashed, India is the fourth country to master the technology of soft-landing on the Moon after the US, China and the erstwhile Soviet Union.
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