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Producer: Dagogo Altraide

This episode is brought to you by Ground News.

Hi, welcome to another episode of Cold Fusion.

Did you know that there's huge amounts of water on the moon?

It's not a widely known fact yet, because the existence of water on

As it turns out, water is pretty useful in space.

Humans could turn it into oxygen, convert it into a hydrogen fuel source, or even just drink it.

Frankly, the discovery of water could lead to

In August of 2023, Russia and India were engaged in an extremely close race to return to the lunar south pole to investigate further.

India launched their probe 4 weeks before Russia, but took a longer route.

Just as Russia looked like they were going to beat India by a few days, disaster struck.

Their probe, the Lunar 25, crashed while attempting to land.

Just 4 days later, the Indian probe would touch down successfully.

At the same time, NASA astronauts are busy preparing to return to the Moon in a couple of years.

But there's even more lunar activity to come.

Just last year, it was forecast that in the next 10 years, there would be 250 private and public lunar missions.

This year, the projected number has risen to 400.

The moon is about to become the hottest real estate not on earth.

And there's a last minute update to this story.

But we'll get through the main story first and then look at the controversy near the end.

1st of January 2020, India announced a new lunar mission.

It was only then that the Russians were spurred on to do the same.

At the dawn of space exploration in the 1950s and 60s, the then Soviet Union dominated the Americans.

In fact, Russia had already landed 7 probes on the moon.

But in a shock, this time they would fail.

Their spacecraft spiraled out of control and crashed into the lunar surface.

According to experts, a suspected misfiring of the propulsion system could be to blame.

The last time Russia sent a probe to the moon was 47 years ago, so perhaps they're a bit rusty.

But the best part for India is that they managed to do it cheaply at 73 million dollars.

For context, it's not unusual for NASA missions to range in the billions.

Russia's mission cost almost 3 times as much

It should be noted that landing at the South Pole isn't easy to do.

The surface is littered with craters and some can be kilometers deep.

Temperatures in this area can fall to minus 200 degrees Celsius.

The sun also sits very low, so there's a pitch black shadow that's cast across the dark side of the moon.

Lunar lander sensors have a difficult time sensing how deep the craters can be or even if there's craters at all.

These factors make it difficult to slow down and land a craft successfully.

It's so hard that with this mission India became the first country to achieve the South Pole landing.

The Indian Space Research Organisation also managed to conclusively test for and discover ice on

Analysing this water could also give us crucial information about the moon, our solar system and even the earth.

As for the Indians, their Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft comprises of 3 main components, a propulsion module, a lander and a rover.

Thus far it's completed much of its primary objective by carrying out thermal, seismological and mineral tests.

Unfortunately, after a few days of operation and being put into sleep, it seems like there's been some trouble waking the rover up from sleep.

Meanwhile, the Americans are training astronauts to go back to the Moon.

humans will be in the vicinity of the Moon in late

This mission isn't to land on the Moon, but to fly around it.

But still, with this, It means that astronauts are training to go to the moon for the first time in 51 years.

The Artemis program is led by NASA in the United States, but also involves Canada, Europe, Japan, Israel, Australia and India.

Formed in 2017, the program's long-term goal is to establish a permanent base on the Moon and to see if Mars exploration is viable.

The 4 astronauts are Reid Wiseman, Commander, Victor Glover, Pilot, Christina Koch, mission specialist, and Jeremy Hansen, Canadian astronaut.

On November 16th, 2022, a test flight was done.

The Space Launch System, or SLS rocket, and an Orion spacecraft containing a dummy, successfully orbited the Moon and touched down on Earth.

This mission tested the spacecraft's performance and heat shield upon re-entry.

same thing will be done, but with humans on board.

So the first manned mission will last about 10 days, first lifting off

and orbiting the Earth for about a day while checking its life support systems.

Then the spacecraft will fire its main engine to boost itself towards the Moon.

It's then going to use gravity to bring itself and the crew back to Earth.

The outbound trip will take 4 days, sending the astronauts about 6,000 miles or 10,000 kilometers behind the far side of the moon.

Depending on the moon's position in orbit, these astronauts could set the record for the furthest that humans have ever travelled from Earth.

Starting in 2028, if all goes to plan, these Artemis missions will land humans on the Moon regularly.

The plan is that the astronauts will take off and then connect with a commercial human-rated landing vehicle derived from SpaceX's Starship rocket.

Starship will then take 2 of the astronauts to a landing site near the Moon's south pole for a series of moonwalks before launching back into space for a rendezvous with the Orion spacecraft and then proceed back

do this yearly, but with a cost of $4.2 billion per mission, such costs could put a strain on NASA's budget.

As it stands now, the astronauts are under a heavy training schedule.

The astronauts started their training on June 21st, 2023 and will continue for the next 18 months.

Classrooms, simulator training, aircraft weightlessness training, assessments and resolving system failures.

Overall, it's cool to think that there's going to be some excitement about space travel again.

The NASA astronauts received a pre-training prep talk from Charlie Duke who walked on

the moon on the Apollo 16 mission in April 1972.

87, He's 1 of the 4 moonwalkers still living.

In fact, all of the astronauts on this latest mission were born after the Apollo landings.

Quote, they've got a very difficult mission.

The landing area they're going into seems to be very rough, a lot of deep shadows.

If you look at the vehicle that they're going to fly in, it's got a lot more technology than we had, but it's a lot bigger too.

They were very interested in how we did things in Apollo, but a lot of Apollo doesn't apply to them though, because the technologies are so different." Duke said that his focus on Apollo 16 was on just completing the mission, except for 1 moment.

Quote, as we came around from the backside of the moon and looked out at the Earth, the thought hit you.

It's a beautiful earth out there But your focus is more on your objectives and on the flight." End quote So really it is a special historic time for lunar exploration When India landed on the moon There was a flurry of reactions some positive and others not so much.

the New York Times would be called out for its reductive and racially charged messaging.

And a UK journalist would have a long ranting monologue berating India

is all you saw, how warped would your view of the event be?

When consuming news, it's important to get the whole picture, and that's where today's sponsor, Ground News, comes in.

Using Ground News, I can see that India's moon landing was covered by more than 300 news outlets around the world.

Their biased distribution chart shows me the political leanings of these outlets, and I can even get a summary of

The left discusses it as a scientific adventure, with India joining an elite club, the centre as a national event, and the right as a part of a broader international competition in space exploration, and a direct triumph over Russia's failed attempt.

Scrolling down, I can compare every single article on the topic with convenient tags showing me the context about the source, like how readable it is, and who owns it.

Ground News is a fantastic tool for getting international perspectives, shifting through misinformation and identifying media bias.

They provide all the tools you need to be a critical thinker.

Today I'm offering 30% off their Vantage subscription.

This comes with a feature called My News Bias, so you can even check how your news viewing habits change over time.

So go to ground.news.coldfusion or click the link in the description to get started.

It's well known that China and India aren't really getting along at the moment.

It seems like their squabbling has reached outer space.

Ouyang Zhiyuan, a top expert in China's lunar exploration program, remarked that the Indian probe's landing site was nowhere near the South Pole.

On Earth, the South Pole is defined as anywhere between 66.5 and 90 degrees south.

Moon, it's between 88.5 degrees and 90 degrees.

And the Indian probe landed at 69 degrees.

So Technically, it would be in the South Pole on Earth, but not on

The landing site of Chandrayaan-3 is not at the lunar South Pole, not in the lunar South Pole region, nor is it near the lunar South Pole region.

The Indian Space Agency hasn't responded at the time of writing.

But other scientists have differing views.

Quinton Parker, director of Hong Kong University's Laboratory for Space Research, told the South China Morning Post, quote, So we're going to have to wait and see how this part plays out.

And with that, That's all of what's going on with the moon.

If you want to see how 3 men tried to go to the moon But got stranded halfway check out my episode on the Apollo 13 disaster.

I believe it's now the most watched episode on this channel So that's it from me.

My name is Dagogo and you've been watching ColdFusion and I'll see you again soon for

And it goes on and on and on This world's on and on and on And it goes on and on and on This world's on and on and on Cold ColdFusion, it's new thinking.


Speaker 0: This episode is brought to you by Ground News. Hi, welcome to another episode of Cold Fusion. Did you know that there's huge amounts of water on the moon? It's not a widely known fact yet, because the existence of water on

Speaker 1: the moon was only confirmed in 2009. Yeah, but so what? You might be asking. As it turns out, water is pretty useful in space. Humans could turn it into oxygen, convert it into a hydrogen fuel source, or even just drink it.

Frankly, the discovery of water could lead to

Speaker 0: a base on the moon. In August of 2023, Russia and India were engaged in an extremely close race to return to the lunar south pole to investigate further. India launched their probe 4 weeks before Russia, but took a longer route. Just as Russia looked like they were going to beat India by a few days, disaster struck. Their probe, the Lunar 25, crashed while attempting to land.

Just 4 days later, the Indian probe would touch down successfully. At the same time, NASA astronauts are busy preparing to return to the Moon in a couple of years. But there's even more lunar activity to come. Just last year, it was forecast that in the next 10 years, there would be 250 private and public lunar missions. This year, the projected number has risen to 400.

The moon is about to become the hottest real estate not on earth.

Speaker 1: And there's a last minute update to this story. China is disputing India's claims. But we'll get through the main story first and then look at the controversy near the end. So let's check it out. On the

Speaker 0: 1st of January 2020, India announced a new lunar mission. It was only then that the Russians were spurred on to do the same. Russia had experience on their side. At the dawn of space exploration in the 1950s and 60s, the then Soviet Union dominated the Americans. In fact, Russia had already landed 7 probes on the moon.

But in a shock, this time they would fail. Their spacecraft spiraled out of control and crashed into the lunar surface. According to experts, a suspected misfiring of the propulsion system could be to blame. The last time Russia sent a probe to the moon was 47 years ago, so perhaps they're a bit rusty. But the best part for India is that they managed to do it cheaply at 73 million dollars.

For context, it's not unusual for NASA missions to range in the billions. Russia's mission cost almost 3 times as much

Speaker 1: as the Indian mission at 200 million.

Speaker 0: It should be noted that landing at the South Pole isn't easy to do. The surface is littered with craters and some can be kilometers deep. Temperatures in this area can fall to minus 200 degrees Celsius. The sun also sits very low, so there's a pitch black shadow that's cast across the dark side of the moon. Lunar lander sensors have a difficult time sensing how deep the craters can be or even if there's craters at all.

These factors make it difficult to slow down and land a craft successfully. It's so hard that with this mission India became the first country to achieve the South Pole landing. The Indian Space Research Organisation also managed to conclusively test for and discover ice on

Speaker 1: the moon back in 2009. Before this, water on

Speaker 0: the moon had only been a theory. Analysing this water could also give us crucial information about the moon, our solar system and even the earth. As for the Indians, their Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft comprises of 3 main components, a propulsion module, a lander and a rover. Thus far it's completed much of its primary objective by carrying out thermal, seismological and mineral tests. Unfortunately, after a few days of operation and being put into sleep, it seems like there's been some trouble waking the rover up from sleep.

Meanwhile, the Americans are training astronauts to go back to the Moon. Under NASA's Artemis program,

Speaker 1: humans will be in the vicinity of the Moon in late

Speaker 0: 2024 or 2025. This mission isn't to land on the Moon, but to fly around it. But still, with this, It means that astronauts are training to go to the moon for the first time in 51 years. The Artemis program is led by NASA in the United States, but also involves Canada, Europe, Japan, Israel, Australia and India. Formed in 2017, the program's long-term goal is to establish a permanent base on the Moon and to see if Mars exploration is viable.

The 4 astronauts are Reid Wiseman, Commander, Victor Glover, Pilot, Christina Koch, mission specialist, and Jeremy Hansen, Canadian astronaut. On November 16th, 2022, a test flight was done. The Space Launch System, or SLS rocket, and an Orion spacecraft containing a dummy, successfully orbited the Moon and touched down on Earth. This mission tested the spacecraft's performance and heat shield upon re-entry. By 2025, the

Speaker 1: same thing will be done, but with humans on board. So the first manned mission will last about 10 days, first lifting off

Speaker 0: and orbiting the Earth for about a day while checking its life support systems. Then the spacecraft will fire its main engine to boost itself towards the Moon. It's then going to use gravity to bring itself and the crew back to Earth. The outbound trip will take 4 days, sending the astronauts about 6,000 miles or 10,000 kilometers behind the far side of the moon. Depending on the moon's position in orbit, these astronauts could set the record for the furthest that humans have ever travelled from Earth.

Starting in 2028, if all goes to plan, these Artemis missions will land humans on the Moon regularly. The plan is that the astronauts will take off and then connect with a commercial human-rated landing vehicle derived from SpaceX's Starship rocket. Starship will then take 2 of the astronauts to a landing site near the Moon's south pole for a series of moonwalks before launching back into space for a rendezvous with the Orion spacecraft and then proceed back

Speaker 1: to Earth. NASA aims to

Speaker 0: do this yearly, but with a cost of $4.2 billion per mission, such costs could put a strain on NASA's budget. So we'll have

Speaker 1: to wait and see what truly happens.

Speaker 0: But that's for the future. As it stands now, the astronauts are under a heavy training schedule. The astronauts started their training on June 21st, 2023 and will continue for the next 18 months. It's going to

Speaker 1: be intense. Classrooms, simulator training, aircraft weightlessness training, assessments and resolving system failures.

Speaker 0: Overall, it's cool to think that there's going to be some excitement about space travel again. The NASA astronauts received a pre-training prep talk from Charlie Duke who walked on

Speaker 1: the moon on the Apollo 16 mission in April 1972. Duke, now

Speaker 0: 87, He's 1 of the 4 moonwalkers still living. In fact, all of the astronauts on this latest mission were born after the Apollo landings. Quote, they've got a very difficult mission. The landing area they're going into seems to be very rough, a lot of deep shadows. If you look at the vehicle that they're going to fly in, it's got a lot more technology than we had, but it's a lot bigger too.

They were very interested in how we did things in Apollo, but a lot of Apollo doesn't apply to them though, because the technologies are so different." Duke said that his focus on Apollo 16 was on just completing the mission, except for 1 moment. Quote, as we came around from the backside of the moon and looked out at the Earth, the thought hit you. Man, we're a long way from home. I hope this thing holds together. But you don't dwell on it.

It's a beautiful earth out there But your focus is more on your objectives and on the flight." End quote So really it is a special historic time for lunar exploration When India landed on the moon There was a flurry of reactions some positive and others not so much.

Speaker 1: On the negative end of things,

Speaker 0: the New York Times would be called out for its reductive and racially charged messaging. And a UK journalist would have a long ranting monologue berating India

Speaker 1: as a nation. Now if this

Speaker 0: is all you saw, how warped would your view of the event be? When consuming news, it's important to get the whole picture, and that's where today's sponsor, Ground News, comes in. Using Ground News, I can see that India's moon landing was covered by more than 300 news outlets around the world. Their biased distribution chart shows me the political leanings of these outlets, and I can even get a summary of

Speaker 1: how the issue is being framed.

Speaker 0: The left discusses it as a scientific adventure, with India joining an elite club, the centre as a national event, and the right as a part of a broader international competition in space exploration, and a direct triumph over Russia's failed attempt. Scrolling down, I can compare every single article on the topic with convenient tags showing me the context about the source, like how readable it is, and who owns it. Ground News is a fantastic tool for getting international perspectives, shifting through misinformation and identifying media bias. They provide all the tools you need to be a critical thinker. Today I'm offering 30% off their Vantage subscription.

This comes with a feature called My News Bias, so you can even check how your news viewing habits change over time. So go to ground.news.coldfusion or click the link in the description to get started. It's well known that China and India aren't really getting along at the moment. It seems like their squabbling has reached outer space. Ouyang Zhiyuan, a top expert in China's lunar exploration program, remarked that the Indian probe's landing site was nowhere near the South Pole.

On Earth, the South Pole is defined as anywhere between 66.5 and 90 degrees south. But on the

Speaker 1: Moon, it's between 88.5 degrees and 90 degrees. And the Indian probe landed at 69 degrees. So Technically, it would be in the South Pole on Earth, but not on

Speaker 0: the Moon. Tzu-Yen speaks, quote, It's wrong. The landing site of Chandrayaan-3 is not at the lunar South Pole, not in the lunar South Pole region, nor is it near the lunar South Pole region. The Indian Space Agency hasn't responded at the time of writing. But other scientists have differing views.

Quinton Parker, director of Hong Kong University's Laboratory for Space Research, told the South China Morning Post, quote, So we're going to have to wait and see how this part plays out. And with that, That's all of what's going on with the moon. If you want to see how 3 men tried to go to the moon But got stranded halfway check out my episode on the Apollo 13 disaster. I believe it's now the most watched episode on this channel So that's it from me. My name is Dagogo and you've been watching ColdFusion and I'll see you again soon for

Speaker 1: the next episode. Cheers guys, have a good 1.

Speaker 2: And it goes on and on and on This world's on and on and on And it goes on and on and on This world's on and on and on Cold ColdFusion, it's new thinking.

See all ColdFusion transcripts on Youtube

Countries Are Racing To The Moon Again