The lunar challenges

Space exploration is challenging but to replicate what had been achieved way back in the late 1960s and early 1970s with humans onboard should have been smooth in our modern age.

- KUMAR ABISHEK

In February, the private sector took a giant leap with its first successful moon landing but it was far from spectacular Intuitive Machines' Odysseus spacecraft settled on the lunar surface at an awkward angle, crippling the mission.

Earlier in January, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) and a commercial partner, Astrobotic, took a first step towards returning US robotic instruments to the moon, but failed. The same month, JAXA's SLIM probe, designed to land within a 100-metre diameter target zone on the lunar surface, ended in disappointment until it survived two lunar nights without its instruments freezing. This was less than a year after a Japanese startup's bid to land on the moon failed.

Russia's Luna 25 lander mission, which planned to land near the lunar south pole, too, crashed in August last year.

Recently, SpaceX launched Starship, which cruised into space, but the private astronautics firm lost its heaviest rocket after re-entry to Earth. Starship is tasked with carrying astronauts to the moon as part of Nasa's Artemis programme, which has now been delayed.

In recent years, India's Chandrayaan-3 mission in 2023 has stood out as the only silver lining-its Vikram lander managed to settle in the vicinity of the lunar south pole, a region thought to hold ice water. But this too followed a failed soft-landing attempt in 2019.

These repeated setbacks prompt a pressing question: If we could put humans on the moon in 1969, why are we stumbling now?