News Excerpt:
ISRO has been awarded the 2023 Leif Erikson Lunar Prize by the Exploration Museum in Iceland’s Husavik for its successful Chandrayaan-3 mission.
- The award celebrates the first soft-landing of a spacecraft near the lunar south pole.
India’s recent achievement in space:
- Chandrayaan-3 marked a historic milestone as the lander module touched down on the moon’s South Pole.
- This achievement positioned India as the fourth nation, following the United States, China, and Russia, to achieve a successful lunar landing.
- Following the successful landing, the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover carried out various tasks on the lunar surface, including -
- Detecting elemental presence like sulphur,
- Recording temperature differentials,
- Monitoring lunar activities.
- India launched its inaugural solar mission, Aditya-L1.
- The spacecraft underwent successful maneuvers, including four earth-bound maneuvers and a crucial Trans-Lagrangean Point 1 Insertion (TL1I) maneuver, enabling it to move beyond Earth’s sphere of influence.
About Leif Erikson Lunar Prize:
- The Leif Erikson Award is an annual prize from the Exploration Museum in Husavik, Iceland since 2015.
- It is named after Leif Erikson - a Norse explorer thought to be the first European to set foot on continental America, almost four centuries before the expedition of Christopher Columbus.
- It reveres trailblazers in the realm of lunar exploration, commemorating their significant contributions to humanity's quest for celestial understanding.
