Top Chinese Scientist Says India Did Not Land At The Lunar South Pole

In August , India became the fourth country to touch down on the Moon , and the first to land near the lunar south pole . Since touching down , the lander and rover have conducted experiment to measure the temperature at the landing site and analyse the penning of the lunar soil , before – perhaps for good – shutting down for the lunar night .

The mission has been a resounding achiever , detectingwater ice , movementunder the control surface , and measuring thetemperature at the lunar south polefor the first fourth dimension in human chronicle . Or did they ?

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Ouyang Ziyuan , often called the father of China ’s own synodic month program , toldChinese - language newspaperScience Timesthat India ’s Chandrayaan-3 Vikram Lander is far from the lunar south magnetic pole , sitting at 69 degree south latitude . While on Earth that stemma of line of latitude would sit down within the Antarctic Circle , he pointed out that , on the moon , the south pole begins around 88.5 and 90 degree latitude , before he go on to tout about the Chinese space program .

China ’s space curriculum " has been capable of sending orbiters and landers immediately into earth - moon transfer electron orbit since the launch of Chang’e-2 in 2010 , a maneuver that India has yet to return give the limited capacity of its launch vehicles , " he differentiate Science Times , as perTime . " The railway locomotive that China used is also far more advanced . "

While he may have a point suggesting that India did not technically land on the lunar south pole , that is n’t something that has been take by the Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO ) . The lander touch on down around 600 klick ( 373 miles ) from the Moon ’s south pole , where it has been appropriate byNASA ’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter .

ISRO has always been clear that they landednearerthe South Pole than any other country , if not quite at the South Pole itself . It ’s an telling achievement and a charge that ’s already telling us about the interesting chemic makeup of thelunar soil , even if it was n’t at the South Pole itself .