Russia’s Luna-25 crashed before reaching the Moon’s south pole, but India’s Chandrayaan-3 is due to land soon.
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
The frozen water untainted by the Sun's radiation might have accumulated in cold polar regions over millions of years, leading to the accumulation of ice on or near the surface. This provides a unique sample for scientists to analyse and understand the history of water in our solar system. Many countries are planning new human missions to the Moon, and the astronauts will need water for drinking and sanitation.
Also, some extremes at the south pole are bathed in sunlight for extended periods of time, up to 200 Earth days of constant illumination. "Solar power is another resource [to set up a lunar base and power equipment] potential that the pole has," says Noah Petro, a project scientist at Nasa. But scientists are chary of calling this a race to the south pole. "These missions have been planned for decades and got delayed so many times. Race is not critical to our understanding of the Moon. The last time there was a real space race, we ended up losing interest in the Moon after three years and haven't returned to its surface in 50 years," says Vishnu Reddy, a professor of planetary sciences at the University of Arizona.
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