India's Chandrayan-3 was lifted for the fourth time, with an orbital height of 233 * 71351KM, which may be that others were questioning that the orbit of Chandrayan-3 was too low, and the orbital data released by ISRO this time specifically emphasized: as expected, if as the official said, it seems that the launch of Chandrayan-3 is normal, India is landing on the moon as designed.
However, on the day of the launch of India's Chandrayaan-3, Natan Esmont, a senior researcher at the Institute of Astronautics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said:
If all goes well, Russia's Chandrayaan-25 will land on the lunar surface a few days before India's Chandrayan-3.
Yes, not only India wants to land on the moon, Russia also wants to land on the moon, planning to launch the lunar landing probe "Chandrayaan-25" on August 11, and the Russian rocket is powerful enough to directly launch the probe "Chandrayan-25" into lunar orbit, it only takes 5 days to enter the orbit around the moon, and then it takes 5 days to brake from an elliptical orbit to a near-circular circumlunar orbit, and it is expected to land on the moon on August 21.
India is more at a loss, although India launched early, launched on July 14, but India's rocket thrust is not large enough, can not launch the 3.9-ton "Chandrayan-3" directly into lunar orbit, can only be in the earth orbit 5 times to rise, just in the earth orbit will take 18 days;
To enter lunar orbit, it will take another 4.5 days to fly to the moon, and it is expected to enter lunar orbit on August 5;
After entering lunar orbit, it will also have to brake and change orbit, reduce the orbital altitude of the probe, this process will take more than 10 days, according to the scheduled design, Chandrayan-3 will land on the moon on August 23-24.
So you see, India's moon landing is simply early in the morning, a late set, although the launch time is earlier than Russia, but the progress of the moon landing is lagging behind Russia, and if Russia is really successful, it will create 2 world records:
The fourth country in the world to make a soft landing on the surface of the moon
The first country to make a soft landing on the south pole of the Moon
Of course, some people feel that Russia does not care about the historical record of "the fourth country in the world to land softly on the surface of the moon", because people landed on the moon as early as the last century.
In fact, this is not the case, it was the Soviet Union that landed on the moon in the last century, the Soviet Union not only successfully landed on the moon, but also brought back the lunar soil from the moon, much earlier than us, but the Soviet Union and Russia are different after all, the Soviet Union successfully landed on the moon, but Russia has not yet landed on the moon, so this moon landing is very important for Russia.
"Luna-25", as the name knows, is a continuation of the Soviet lunar exploration project, the last launch of which was the Soviet lunar probe launched in 1976, which not only successfully landed on the moon, but also obtained 170 grams of samples from the moon.
Luna-25 is a Russian-developed lunar probe that plans to land at the south pole of the moon, focusing on detecting the potential available water resources under the moon's permanent ice to prepare for a subsequent manned lunar landing.
In fact, the fate of Luna 25 has twists and turns, originally planned to be launched in 2019, planned to pull India and Japan to play together, but the result of playing together is that India and Japan pay for it, Russia provides technology, India and Japan feel that it is not cost-effective, did not land on the moon together, but each engaged in the moon, such as: India engaged in Chandrayaan-3, Japan engaged in the SLIM lunar landing project, which will be launched on August 26.
Later, Russia and the European Space Agency cooperated to land on the moon, but affected by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Western countries sanctioned Russia, and finally Russia played by itself, so it postponed the launch, and only released news some time ago, planning to launch on August 11, which should be stable, because the probe has been transported to the launch site.
India hugs the lap of the United States: will space take off?
India played with Russia in the early years, but during this time relations with the United States became better, and it hugged the American thigh, and signed the Artemis Agreement with the United States a while ago, hoping to take the United States to the moon.
In fact, India's space industry started not too late, China launched Dongfanghong 1 in 1970, launching its own rockets and satellites for the first time; India launched its first rocket and satellite in 1978, and it was not very far behind China in the initial stage.
China launched Chang'e-1 in 2007, India launched Chandrayaan-1 in 2008, the interval is very short, it can be said that the early China and India in the field of aerospace have a common starting point, and India is still relatively good at the beginning, not subject to a very severe technical blockade, China is different, the United States-led countries have been blocking China's aerospace science and technology, forcing China to develop itself.
But today, China's space industry is clearly in the global lead, with China launching a total of 25 times in the first half of 2023, second only to the United States with 53 and far higher than India 4 times.
Nowadays, India is on the lap of the United States and relies on American space technology, such as Chandrayan-3 relies on the US deep space monitoring and control system, India's manned spaceflight also depends on the United States, and the United States and India plan to send Indian astronauts to the International Space Station in 2024.
So, holding the lap of the United States, can space take off?
Definitely not, what do you think!
The thing is this, aerospace science and technology is high-precision technology, and the United States has an advantage in this regard, the United States often uses this advantage to harvest allies, such as: Artemis program, at present, only China and the United States can independently carry out manned moon landings, and the United States led by 27 countries signed the Artemis agreement, the biggest contribution of these countries is to provide funds, the United States provides technology, although it is cooperation, but in the core technology the United States will easily not leak.
Moreover, why does the United States guard against China? Because of the large Chinese and vast territory, although it was poor and white in the last century, the United States knows that China has potential, and has always blocked China in terms of aerospace technology, and even formulated the "Cox Report" and "Wolf Clause" in an attempt to lock China into backwardness.
India is actually the same, the United States will not allow India to rise, that is, the current India, for the United States has use value, so it actively wooed India, India also wants to take advantage of this opportunity, more benefits from the United States, but if the United States shares core technology, the United States is definitely not willing to do it.
What's more, even if the United States is willing to do it, India can't cooperate, aerospace is a country's comprehensive national strength embodiment, not everyone can afford to play, India's GDP in 2021 is $3.15 trillion, China's 2021 114.92 trillion, the volume difference is too big, India's aerospace is difficult to take off. #所见所得, very scientific ## Indian Chandrayaan-3 ##印度#