Foreword: Recently, our country can be regarded as fragrant in the eyes of other countries, and this time Chang'e-6, which came back from the moon, has attracted the attention of the whole world.
All kinds of praise and compliments followed, and even the United States, which has always been concerned with space sanctions, did not hesitate to be cheeky in trying to get closer to us.
But when most of us are proud of the development of China's aviation industry, there are always some people who start to find all kinds of criticism, saying that Chang'e-6 spent nearly $140 million from development to landing on the moon.
India, the fourth country in the world to make a soft landing on the moon, spent less than $75 million on the moon landing.
On August 23, 2023, India's Chandrayaan-3 successfully made a soft landing near the south pole of the moon, becoming the fourth country in the world to achieve a soft landing on the moon, and what is even more surprising is that India's Chandrayaan-3 cost only $74.6 million from construction to moon landing.
It seems that we are not as good as others in this comparison, but is this really the case? Listen to me.
India's Aerospace Route
India's exploration of the universe started much earlier than China's, launching its first rocket in 1963 and establishing a rocket launch base, while China's first rocket was launched nearly seven years later than India's.
In 1970, China's artificial satellite "Dongfanghong 1" was sent into space by China's first domestic rocket "Long March 1", of course, it is undeniable that India's space industry at that time was so smooth without the help of the Soviet Union.
On July 18, 1980, India got rid of the help of other countries and spontaneously developed rockets to successfully send satellites into space, and as of 2012, India has intermittently launched more than 50 satellites and built its own satellite navigation system.
In 2013, India successfully launched a Mars probe and began to explore Mars, but China's first Mars rover, Tianwen-1, only began to be developed in 2016 and launched in 2020.
In fact, China's earliest development of the Mars probe began as early as 2011, when the name of the Mars probe developed by China was "Firefly 1", but there was no suitable rocket for launch at that time.
So he chose to launch it with the Russian probe, but he didn't expect the Russian probe to have an accident after entering space, resulting in the continental probe also failing to land on Mars, and then China began to develop it independently.
In 2017, India launched more than 100 satellites directly into space, which shows that India still has a certain strength in aerospace.
Lunar exploration in India
But we found that with the development of the times, India's space journey seems to have come to a standstill, for example, in 2008 India successfully launched the first lunar probe, which they named "Chandrayaan-1".
Chandrayaan-1 went smoothly after entering space and began to orbit the moon, bringing back a lot of exploration data for India, but what was unexpected was that the probe, which could have been running for more than two years, lost contact with the ground and crashed on the surface of the moon after more than a year of operation.
India has not given up on exploring the moon, and in 2019 the Chandrayaan-2 probe was successfully launched, but there was an accident when it landed on the moon, and the probe lost contact less than three kilometers from the surface of the moon.
The "Chandrayaan-3" is India's third lunar probe, and the landing site of Chandrayaan-3 is near the south pole of the moon, and many people have a wait-and-see attitude towards India's lunar exploration project, after all, the probe cost less than $75 million, and it is difficult to ensure the quality of the various parts of the probe.
You must know that the development of the Apollo in the United States at that time cost 25.5 billion US dollars to the moon landing, and it was still 1961, and the money at that time was much more valuable than the current money, which shows that the cost of the moon landing is very high, and it is really surprising that India completed the moon landing with only such a low amount of money.
According to the relevant person in charge of India, the reason why Chandrayaan-3 can successfully land on the moon this time is inseparable from the first two failures, and scientists have carefully studied the mistakes of the first two times and repaired the faults and deficiencies of the probe, so that the success of Chandrayaan-3 was achieved.
In fact, the reason why India has invested so little money in Chandrayaan-3 is because they don't want to increase the cost of failure. You must know that the lunar probes developed by India have failed twice, and India has spent a lot of money and energy on these two probes, but the final result is so unsatisfactory.
In order to be able to do big things with little money, India did not prepare spare probes and spare parts for the lunar probe Luna-3, and there was a feeling that it would be okay and forget it.
The difference between high cost and low cost
In other words, is there a difference between India's low-cost lunar probe and China's moon landing that has spent so much money?
First of all, there is a difference in terms of mission, our Chang'e-6 brought back the soil on the far side of the moon after returning to Earth this time, you must know that our country is the first country to explore the far side of the moon, and also brought back the soil on the far side of the moon.
India's Chandrayaan-3 only discovered some minerals on the surface of the moon, and photographed the surface of the moon, and we have these things for a long time, the two missions have different technical needs, it is obvious that bringing back the soil on the far side of the moon requires higher technology and more sophisticated technology, and the cost of research is naturally higher than that of India.
Secondly, the continent's lunar exploration journey can be said to come out step by step, and each process needs to be explored by itself, and in such a process, it naturally requires a large amount of research funds, and India's research is inseparable from the support and help of other countries, and some of their technologies and related parts need to be purchased from other countries, which can greatly reduce their research costs.
It can be seen that although the mainland's lunar exploration cost is relatively high, all our technologies and parts are independently developed, and we have not relied on the hands of other countries to get to this day.
We still have a long way to go for the exploration of the moon, and it is difficult to reach the end with the help of others in this process, and if other countries do not give some support, then it will be difficult to carry out relevant research to the end, after all, there will always be countries that will carry out technical blockades, and what should we do with the research at that time?
It is better to rely on your own strength as early as possible, step by step, to carry out research steadily and explore the mysteries of the universe.
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