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With the complete success of the Chang'e-6 lunar exploration mission and the successful return of 1,935.3 grams of samples from the far side of the moon, China's aerospace industry has once again become the focus of the world.
However, after the exposure of relevant media, the investment behind Chang'e-6's lunar journey has gradually surfaced, and after comparing it with the cost of India's moon landing last year, it was found that the cost of the mainland is really "ridiculously high".
In August last year, India became the fourth country in human history to successfully land on the moon!
The most important thing is that they only spent $74.6 million on the entire lunar exploration project, which is even lower than the cost of making a space movie in Hollywood.
And with this lunar exploration mission, India also became the first country in the world to land near the south pole of the moon, so it seems that India really has nothing to say in terms of cost performance.
So much so that there is an opinion that India has far surpassed China in some aspects of technology, is this statement true? Could it be that India has really mastered the unknown black technology?
Source: Time Weekly 2023-08-23 on "The World's Fourth! With a cost of only $74.6 million, why did India land on the moon? ".
India, which was ridiculed for "pulling satellites with oxen".
The ridicule that India has experienced in the development of the aerospace field is simply more than that of the mainland in the last century!
The New York Times once published a cartoon with obvious discriminatory overtones, depicting a plainly dressed Indian, holding a cow in one hand and knocking on the door of an "elite space club" with the other.
Cartoon published in The New York Times
However, the brightly dressed "members" sneered at the Indians outside the door, and from this cartoon, we can intuitively feel that Western countries question and ridicule India's attempt to explore space.
Some media even joked that if India wants to explore space, is it preparing to use ox carts to pull satellites?
However, in the face of doubts and ridicule from the outside world, India did not choose to give up its "space dream", but was determined to make achievements in the field of aerospace to sweep away the humiliation brought to them by Western countries.
It is worth mentioning that although the outside world has long had a negative image of India as poor, backward, unhygienic, etc., in fact, India does not lack elite talents, on the contrary, there are many Indians in NASA in the United States.
Therefore, in terms of talent, India does not have a disadvantage, and even has a very competitive advantage, because the salary of Indian scientists is not high, even for Indians working at NASA in the United States, the average monthly salary is only 2,700 US dollars.
So in terms of labor costs, India has also saved a lot of money, and it is understood that the Indian government has prepared a budget of $2 billion for their moon landing program.
This is in stark contrast to the United States, which has a budget of $62 billion in space in 2022 alone, which means that India's budget is only a fraction of that of the United States.
But what everyone didn't expect was that India became the fourth country in the world to successfully land on the moon without even using up the $2 billion!
It is said that everything is difficult at the beginning, and the same is true for India, which successfully developed its first lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1, in 2008, but the probe did not achieve a lunar landing.
After the experience of "Chandrayaan-1", the Indian Space Agency can be said to have doubled its confidence, and even did not hesitate to invest 142 million US dollars in "Chandrayaan-2", which can be described as a "blood capital".
However, this high investment did not bring India the expected "high return", when the "Chandrayaan-2" was only 2.1 kilometers away from the moon, because the lander deviated from the intended orbit, and finally crashed on the surface of the moon.
At that time, countries all over the world could be said to be watching India's jokes, and even many marketing accounts in our country were constantly ridiculing India.
However, even so, India has not given up on their "space dream", and on August 23, 2023, India's "Chandrayaan-3" probe finally successfully landed on the surface of the moon.
India not only became the fourth country in the world to successfully land on the moon, but also the first country in the world to land near the moon's south pole.
The most critical thing is that India's lunar mission only cost 74.6 million US dollars, while the mainland's Chang'e series lunar exploration project, Chang'e 3, which achieved the first lunar landing, cost as much as 120 million alone.
The Chang'e 6, which caused a sensation all over the world, cost billions of dollars before and after, and it can also be seen that India has achieved a landing on the moon with 74.6 million It is indeed very "fantastic".
What's going on here? Is it really India's superior technology, as the outside world has claimed?
Why is India "saving money"?
In fact, India's "Chandrayaan-3" is obviously unfair compared with the mainland's "Chang'e-6", and there is no comparison.
India's "Chandrayaan-3" has only landed on the moon, and it can even be said that this is just a "face-saving project" for India to prove itself to the world.
Scientists are taking lunar soil
However, the success of the mainland's "Chang'e-6" is of epoch-making significance for the entire history of human spaceflight, not only realizing the first lunar sampling mission of mankind, but also bringing back 1935.3 grams of lunar soil on the back of the moon.
In addition, our Chang'e-6 is also equipped with a "little robot" that can collect the most realistic data on the back of the moon.
Source: China Network Live 2024-06-28 Report on "China National Space Administration: Chang'e-6 mission is the most technologically advanced lunar exploration mission in China's space history so far".
Even ESA Director Aschbach and UN Secretary-General's spokesman Djarric did not hesitate to say that Chang'e-6 has achieved a "remarkable achievement"!
Therefore, whether in terms of technology or contribution to the development of human spaceflight, India's "Chandrayaan-3" cannot be compared with the mainland's "Chang'e-6".
Of course, India's $74.6 million moon landing is indeed commendable.
But this is because many of the space equipment they use is not built in-house, but imported, so India's Chandrayaan-3 can be described as "made in all countries".
On the other hand, at the very beginning, in order not to be controlled by others in the aerospace field, the mainland made up its mind to take the road of independent construction, which is also the main reason why the mainland spent a lot of money.
After all, for any country, a lot of money is required to invest in early research and development, but only in this way can we ensure that China's aerospace will never be controlled by others!
Key Sources:
1. This article was originally published in Time Weekly on August 23, 2023 on "The World's Fourth! With a cost of only $74.6 million, why did India land on the moon? ".
2. The original article was published in the live broadcast on China.com on June 28, 2024 on "China National Space Administration: Chang'e-6 mission is the most technically advanced lunar exploration mission in China's space history so far".
3. The original article was published on Guangming.com on July 1, 2024 on "Chang'e-6 successfully returned with lunar back sampling, foreign media: an extremely stupid reason that NASA cannot study valuable samples".