India launches a probe to the south pole of the moon

Initially, two countries wanted to land people on the moon and bring them back safely - but primarily for political reasons. The United States and the Soviet Union (now Russia) competed against each other to try to demonstrate to the world who had the superior economic system and superior technology.

Although the Soviet Union started off strong and seemed to be winning, ultimately the USA showed it had the best technology and it is still the number 1 economy and chief technological innovator in the world. The economic and social system of the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989.

Now, there are other reasons for countries to go to the moon.

We now know, for instance, that the moon contains water. This might make it possible to create small research communities on the moon or even mining operations (to dig resources out of the moon and send them back to earth). When the USA landed astronauts in the late 60s and 70s, they were only landed near the center of the moon (the equator). Much of the planet is unexplored.

By investigating the moon scientists can discover much new information about the formation of our solar system and the history of the universe. Scientists can also, potentially, find various minerals or resources that can be used by people on our planet.

Read an article about this here:

https://www.foxnews.com/science/india-launches-historic-mission-moon

(if the link doesn't work, scroll below for a cut-and-paste of the article)

Vocabulary from the article:

the launch, to launch something - a launch of a spacecraft is the process of sending the craft (space vehicle) from the Earth into space. To launch something can also mean to start something new. "That famous clothing designer is going to launch a new line of clothing (a new series of clothing)."

an exclusive group - very few countries belong to this group. If you go to an exclusive school, it is very difficult to get admitted. An exclusive club only admits a few people. The exclusive group mentioned is the USA, Russia and China - the only other three countries to land objects on the moon.

a glitch - a problem. Usually if some type of electronic device has a glitch, there is a problem with the device. "I can't get into that app on my phone, there seems to be some kind of glitch."

to abort its first attempt - if you abort something, you stop something from happening. "I had to abort my plans to go to the beach because it started raining heavily."  An abortion is a medical procedure that stops a woman from giving birth to a baby.

to burst into applause - they suddenly started clapping their hands. 'to burst into something' means you suddenly start doing something passionately. "When she realized she had won the award, she burst into tears."  "When he realized he had been cheated out of money, he burst into anger."

injected the spacecraft into orbit - this is a strange use of the word 'injected'. If you go to the doctor he might give you an injection of medicine with a hypodermic needle. An injection usually refers to the medical process of sending medicine into a person's body through a needle. Orbit means a path circling the Earth. In this case, the spacecraft will go into orbit around the moon.

lunar - adjective for the moon

a rover - a vehicle controlled on Earth which rides around the surface of the moon or other planets taking pictures and doing experiments.

a mission - this is an important goal that people try to accomplish. "His mission in life was to build his own school in the countryside for poor children."  "The soldiers had the mission of finding the enemy and destroying their camp."

terrain - land

impact - when something hits something else there is impact. "The car crash did not look that severe, but the impact was enough to injure all of the passengers."

an impact probe - a probe is an experiment. So India deliberately crashed something into the surface of the moon as an experiment - maybe to see whether there was water under the surface.

it looms large - it is very important. If something is looming, it seems to get larger and larger. "April 15 is tax day in America. It was already April 2nd and tax day was looming for Bob." (Bob was starting to feel pressure because tax day was getting closer and closer.) If something 'looms' it seems to get closer and closer.

a preliminary investigation - a very basic, first investigation which will be followed by more in-depth investigations

a manual command - some guy made a mistake and caused the crash. manual - caused by a human hand/brain

the celestial satellite - a satellite is anything that orbits the Earth. There are many TV, radio, Google etc. satellites traveling around our planet. The Moon is a celestial satellite - is it a natural, space satellite.

an astronaut - a space traveler

Cut and paste of the article:

With the launch of its Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft, India is planning to join an exclusive group of countries that have successfully landed on the Moon.

A technical glitch had forced India to abort its first attempt to launch the unmanned spacecraft last week. Scientists at the mission control center burst into applause as the rocket lifted off in clear weather as scheduled at 2:43 p.m. local time from Sriharikota in southern India. K. Sivan, who is the head of India's space agency, said the rocket successfully injected the spacecraft into orbit.

The spacecraft — named Chandrayaan, the Sanskrit word for "moon craft" — is scheduled to land on the lunar south pole in September and send a rover to explore water deposits that were confirmed by a previous mission that orbited the Moon.

“#Chandrayaan2 is unique because it will explore and perform studies on the south pole region of lunar terrain which is not explored and sampled by any past mission,” tweeted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday. “This mission will offer new knowledge about the Moon.”

So far, only the U.S., Russia and China have successfully landed on the Moon.

Indian space hardware has reached the Moon before, although the country has yet to achieve a “soft landing” on the lunar surface.

India's first lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, orbited the Moon in 2008 but did not land there. It did, however, launch an impact probe that was intentionally crashed into the Moon.

This photo released by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) shows its Geosynchronous Satellite launch Vehicle (GSLV) MkIII carrying Chandrayaan-2 lift off from Satish Dhawan Space center in Sriharikota, India, Monday, July 22, 2019. India successfully launched an unmanned spacecraft to the far side of the moon on Monday, a week after aborting the mission due to a technical problem. (Indian Space Research Organization via AP)

Chandrayaan-1 operated for 312 days.

The Moon looms large for a number of countries’ space programs. China, for example, became the first country to successfully land a probe on the far side of the Moon earlier this year when the Chang’e 4 lander reached the lunar surface on Jan. 2.

However, Israel’s unmanned Beresheet spacecraft crashed when it attempted to make a Moon landing on April 11. It was just a few hundred feet above the lunar surface when Mission Control in Yehud, Israel, lost contact with the probe.

A preliminary investigation found that a manual command caused the crash.

The U.S. also has its sights set on the celestial satellite and plans to land American astronauts, including the first woman, on the Moon by 2024.

July 20 marked the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing.

Fox News’ Chris Ciaccia, Morgan Cheung and the Associated Press contributed to this article. Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

  

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