One of the scientific leaders of the Chinese lunar program, almost without belittling the achievements of the Indian lunar program, stated that technically the Indian mission cannot be considered the conquest of the south pole or even the subpolar region of the Moon. China really plans to conquer the south pole of our satellite, sending a landing module and a lunar rover there in 2026.

The lander of India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission landed at approximately 69 degrees south latitude. Let’s add that at the same latitude the Russian automatic station “Luna-25” should land. The landing site is approximately 600 km from the Moon’s south pole. Ouyang Ziyuan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and head of the Chinese lunar program, said in an interview with Science Times yesterday: “Chandrayaan-3’s landing site was not at the Moon’s south pole, not in the polar region of the Moon’s south pole, and not near the Antarctic region of the Moon.”.

According to NASA’s definition, the south polar region of our satellite lies between 80° and 90° south latitudes. Chinese scientists think that the polar region on the Moon is even smaller, since the tilt of the Moon’s rotation axis is only 1.5° and the polar region is very small, from 90° to 88° south latitude. But the Indian lunar rover failed to reach the polar region even by NASA standards. The Chinese lunar rover of the Chanye-7 mission, planned for 2026, could be the first vehicle to land there.

In confirming his words, the Chinese expert quotes the Indian developers of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, who published scientific papers about their work in early August and mid-September. In any case, Indian experts say the landing site of the lunar rover is in high latitudes and have not once mentioned the South Pole or subpolar regions.

At the same time, their achievements cannot be taken away from India – the landing of the apparatus at the highest latitude of the Moon, where humanity came. And even if it isn’t technically a pole, or even a polar region, humanity has taken a new step and will eventually achieve its goal.