Moon missions today still face numerous difficulties, and we’ve witnessed some notable failures in recent years. In 2019, India attempted to land a spacecraft on the Moon, which ultimately failed, leaving a long trail of debris on the desolate lunar surface. Now, the Indian Space Research Organization has succeeded in the Chandrayaan-3 mission near the lunar south pole.
India’s success came just days after Russia’s failure when the Luna 25 mission attempted to land nearby but ultimately collided with the lunar surface. These two missions remind us that nearly 60 years after the first successful lunar landing, space exploration remains a challenging and hazardous endeavor. Specifically, lunar missions still involve a considerable degree of uncertainty, akin to flipping a coin, and we’ve seen some prominent failures in recent years.
In the decades since humans last set foot on the Moon, we have made a remarkable discovery – hidden beneath the shadowy depths of lunar polar craters near the south pole lies ice. This newfound information has rendered the Moon incredibly enticing. Image: ZME
The Moon is the only celestial body humans have directly visited so far, and in fact, it’s our nearest neighbor in space, roughly 400,000 kilometers away. However, only four nations have achieved successful landings on the Moon.
The Soviet Union was the first among them. The Luna 9 mission safely touched down on the Moon nearly 60 years ago, in February 1966. The United States followed shortly after with a successful landing on the lunar surface in June 1966 with the Surveyor 1 mission.
China is the third nation to accomplish this feat with the Chang’e 3 mission in 2013. And now, India has joined this list with Chandrayaan-3.
Other countries, including Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Russia, the European Space Agency, Luxembourg, South Korea, and Italy, have also achieved various degrees of success in space exploration with missions that have orbited or passed over the Moon.
On August 19, 2023, Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, announced that “communication with the Luna 25 spacecraft had been interrupted” after a command was sent to lower its orbit around the Moon. Subsequent communication attempts on August 20 helped Roscosmos determine that Luna 25 had crashed.
Despite over 60 years of spaceflight experience from the old Soviet Union to modern-day Russia, this mission ended in failure. The Luna 25 failure recalls two famous Moon accidents in 2019. In April 2019, Israel’s Beresheet lander crash-landed due to a malfunctioning retroreflector during descent, and ground controllers were unable to reestablish communication for a controlled landing. Subsequently, the mission failed, but it was reported that a capsule containing dormant microscopic organisms called tardigrades may have survived the accident.
In September of the same year, India sent its Vikram lander to the lunar surface, but it was destroyed upon landing. NASA later released an image captured by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that showed the crash site of the Vikram lander, with debris scattered over nearly two dozen locations spanning several kilometers.
NASA plans to utilize the Moon and the lunar orbit space station known as Gateway as a stepping stone for longer journeys to Mars. Image: Zhihu
Space missions are among the riskiest endeavors today. Only slightly over 50% of Moon missions have succeeded. Even small satellite missions to Earth’s orbit are not without issues, with success rates ranging from 40% to 70%.
Meanwhile, crewed missions have a success rate of approximately 98%, primarily due to increased investment in human factors. Ground personnel work more diligently to support crewed missions, management allocates more resources, and delays are tolerated to prioritize crew safety.
So, why do nearly half of lunar landing missions always face failure? There are various reasons behind these lunar mission failures, such as technological challenges, lack of experience, and even political context within each nation. However, it’s worth noting that rocket launches into space remain relatively infrequent in each country’s plans.
In human aviation history, we’ve had nearly 20,000 space launches. Compare that to over 1.5 billion automobiles worldwide with prolonged development cycles, and they still frequently encounter issues. Therefore, it might not be realistic to expect that spaceflights can quickly solve existing problems and challenges, whether during the rocket launch phase or the even rarer attempts to land on another planet.
If humanity wishes to establish a thriving civilization with the capability for space travel, we must overcome monumental challenges. Image: Scientific American
To conduct long-duration, deep-space exploration, many issues need to be addressed. Some seem within reach, like improved radiation shielding, self-sustaining ecosystems, autonomous robots, air and water extraction from raw materials, and artificial gravity. Others remain speculative, such as faster-than-light travel, instantaneous communication, and artificial gravity.
Engineers and space enthusiasts will continue to pour their intellect, time, and effort into space missions, gradually making them more reliable. And perhaps, one day, space travel will become as safe as driving a car.