On January 20, 2024, a Japanese unmanned spacecraft landed on the moon. That made Japan the fifth country to reach the moon after Russia, the United States, China, and India. The first country to reach the moon’s surface was Russia (then USSR). On September 13, 1959, its Luna 2 hit the moon. The capability to make a controlled landing on the moon’s surface was yet to be mastered. Subsequently, on February 3, 1966, its Luna 9 accomplished the first soft landing on the moon. The USA became the second country to attain the feat by landing its Surveyor 1 on the moon’s surface on June 2, 1966. However, the USA later became the first country, and so far, the only country to land astronauts on the moon. Its Apollo missions landed men on the moon five times starting with Apollo 11 in July 1969 and ending with Apollo 17 in December 1972.
Over half a century later, China became the third country to enter the moon race by successfully landing a robotic probe Chang’e 3 on the moon on December 14, 2013. About a decade later, India joined the moon club by landing its Vikram robotic craft on the moon on August 23, 2023. And after about five months of Indian expedition, it’s now Japan! The US space agency NASA has also announced plans to land astronauts on the moon again after 54 years in 2026 under its Artemis program. Why is this new moon race?
Space travel is not easy and moon landing is particularly difficult since its gravity is only one-sixth of the Earth and it has no atmosphere. According to an article published in The Conversation in August 2023, almost fifty percent of moon missions, so far, have failed. Just a few days before India’s moon landing Russia’s Luna 25 crashed on the moon. And the USA’s Peregrine Mission 1 launched on January 8, 2024, failed to make a moon landing. Space ventures are also expensive. For example, in 2022, the USA spent 61.97 billion dollars on space programs, according to Statista.
After Chang’e 3, China made two more moon landings in 2019 and 2020. According to The New York Times, the country plans more moon landers in the coming years and aspires to build a base on the moon in the 2030s. NASA’s Artemis program also aims at building a base on the moon.
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This article was published in the Daily Sun on February 03, 2024. Please read the full article here or here.