India’s Moon Landing A Perrier Moment?

Look out “Perrier,” here comes “Pragyan” bottled sparkling water? That is, as India becomes first nation to land a craft on the moon’s South Pole” where much precious water is believed to be stored?

Maybe not just yet. Many other nations, including USA, have or are trying same feat. Most recently, Russia tried & crash landed. Earlier, a Japanese attempt likewise failed as it’s no easy task to slow a speeding rocket to near zero needed for a soft lunar landing. Still, the US & many others are undaunted in the attempt to do so in order to lock in the water that researchers have confirmed exists there & other parts of the moon. Intuitive Machines & SpaceX, for instance, is readying a joint seek & find mission later this year. And, a rover mission to the south pole is being planned by another private American company, Astrobotic Technology.

The stakes are high since water cannot be manufactured without great cost & danger in trying to do so artificially (think H-bomb). But, so are the rewards in finding water on the moon since it could be used to not only aid moon colonization but assist flights into deep space. Not surprisingly & as the WSJ noted, “the presence of water at the lunar south pole is also raising concerns about how such resources may be claimed.” Naturally, China has warned other nations ahead of it in the hunt that “space exploration should promote development for all countries & benefit all mankind,” a mantra the Communists have used to justify its “borrowing” of other countries’ IP. For that reason, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson had made it clear he “didn’t want to see China land crews on the south pole first,” reverse its PR talking points, and claim water resources there for itself.

Davd Soul