- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Ouyang Ziyuan said at a position of 69 degrees south, India’s Chandrayaan-3 moon rover did not land at the South Pole and nor did it go even near the Antarctic polar region.
By: Shubham Ghosh
A LEADING space scientist from China has contested India’s claim to have landed a spacecraft near the moon’s South Pole, saying the landing spot’s co-ordinates were too far from the count.
On August 23, India became the fourth country in history to land successfully on the natural satellite, after the US, erstwhile Soviet Union and China. It, however, became the first to land on the moon’s South Pole.
While the world lauded India’s efforts in making history and getting close to a region that is said to be containing water ice, Chinese scientist Ouyang Ziyuan questioned the claim.
In a state science journal, Ziyuan, who was the chief scientist for China’s maiden lunar landing a decade ago, said at a position of 69 degrees south, India’s Chandrayaan-3 moon rover had not landed at the South Pole. He also said that it was not even near the Antarctic polar region, a report by the South China Morning Post said.
The definition of polar regions on the moon is believed to be complicated since the celestial body’s tilt and rotations are different from those of the Earth. For instance, a moon’s “day” lasts 14 days on Earth.
While the planet’s tilt creates Arctic and Antarctic regions that at some points in the year have day-long daylight or night-time, things are not exactly the same on the moon since it has a smaller tilt and space scientists believe it is not how its polar region is defined.
But not all scientists agree with Ouyang.
“The moment you land a rover close to the South Pole and certainly within what’s defined as the south pole region is already a major achievement,” Quentin Parker, director of Hong Kong University’s Laboratory for Space Research, was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post.
“I think that nothing should be taken away from India because of that.”
