India has just become the fourth nation to soft land a spacecraft on the moon \u2014 and the first to do so near the elusive but alluring lunar south pole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The south pole:<\/strong> Since the 1960s, the US, the USSR\/Russia, and China have all managed to \u201csoft land\u201d on the moon, meaning their spacecraft reached the lunar surface without being destroyed (crashing into the moon is considered a \u201chard\u201d landing).<\/p>\n\n\n\n These landers and the rovers they carried have greatly expanded our understanding of the lunar surface, but typically only in the areas right near where they landed \u2014 the farthest a moon rover<\/a> has ever traveled over the course of its mission was 24 miles<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2033[The lunar south pole] can serve as a base for future exploration.”<\/p>Wendy Cobb<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n No one had ever soft landed near the lunar south pole before \u2014 it\u2019s rife with craters and deep trenches<\/a>, making it an inhospitable landing zone, and a recent attempt by Russia ended with the spacecraft crashing<\/a> into the moon\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That means there\u2019s still a lot about the region we don\u2019t know, including whether the large amounts of water ice<\/a> it appears to harbor are accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2033[The lunar south pole] really a very interesting, historical, scientific, and geologic area that a lot of countries are trying to get at that can serve as a base for future exploration,\u201d Wendy Cobb, a professor of strategy and security studies at the US Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, told CNBC<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Historic touchdown:<\/strong> At 8:33 am ET on August 23, India made history by soft landing its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft<\/a> near the lunar south pole. This also marks the nation\u2019s first successful soft landing anywhere on the moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “This moment is unforgettable. It is phenomenal,\u201d said<\/a> Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. \u201cThis is a victory cry of a new India.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n