The Indian tricolor has landed on the Moon, making India the fourth country in the world to touch the lunar surface. At 8:31 PM Indian time (4:01 PM CET), the Moon Impact Probe (MIP), the lunar module released from the Chandrayaan-I mother probe, touched down on the lunar surface, in the southern part of Earth’s satellite. The module, painted with the Indian flag on its four sides, was launched from the Indian probe while it was orbiting 100 km above the lunar surface, after 23 days in space; the Indian rocket was launched from the Sriharikota base. Following in the footsteps of the United States, the former Soviet Union, and the European Union, the 35-kilogram Indian module brings Gandhi’s country into the global elite of space exploration, placing India among the elite of very few countries that can boast a lunar landing (or, if you will, a moon landing) and beating out Asian competition, especially China and Japan (Japan already has a probe in orbit around the Moon). In addition to the MIP, the Indian Chandrayaan satellite carries 10 other scientific instruments designed and built by other countries. The Indian mission is, above all, searching for helium-3, an extremely rare isotope on Earth that is needed for nuclear fusion, potentially a crucial energy source in the future. Helium-3 is thought to be abundant on the Moon, although it is very difficult to extract.
