Summary:
- Major powers are competing to explore the moon's South Pole, driven by the potential to extract valuable resources like water ice.
- Russia's lunar 25 craft crashed during an attempted landing at the South Pole, highlighting the challenges of lunar exploration.
- The discovery of water on the moon has sparked increased interest, with NASA confirming its existence in 2020.
- India's lunar exploration efforts continue with the Chandrayaan 3 mission, following the setback of Chandrayaan 2's failure in 2019.
Major powers like the US, China, Japan and the EU have all been probing the moon over recent years. There's been a focus on the South Pole where no country has been able to reach yet. Rough terrain makes landing difficult, but the prize could be historic. Ice that could be used to extract fuel, oxygen and drinking water. Russia's lunar 25 craft have been scheduled to land on the South Pole this week, but spun out of control on approach and crashed. Yuri Borozov is the head of Russia's space agency. The race for the development of the natural resources of the moon has begun and in the future the moon will become a platform for deep space exploration, an ideal platform.
Astronomers have wondered about water on the moon for centuries, which is 100 times drier than the Sahara desert. It was only in 2020 that NASA confirmed the existence of water there. India sent up its Chandrayaan 3 lunar lander last month after the Chandrayaan 2 failed in 2019.