On August 23, India created history by becoming the first country to land on the moon’s south pole. It also joined an elite club of countries to achieve a soft landing on the moon after the US, the former Soviet Union and China. This came only a few days after Russia’s mission to land on the moon’s south pole failed with the crash of its lander. This shows how difficult it is to land in a region full of craters, slopes, and boulders.

These are the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover. The diagrams might look scary. But let’s try to understand what they plan to do next on the moon.

The lander and the rover have a mission life of one Lunar day. One lunar day is equal to 14 Earth days. During this period, the lander will study the moon’s atmosphere, measuring its density. It’ll also measure the properties of the moon’s surface, especially the heat trapped in the soil and its seismic activity. Seismic activity is the movement of tectonic plates under the surface…let’s simply call it a moon-quake.

Meanwhile, the Pragyan rover will roll around the landing site and study the surface’s chemical composition. It’ll collect the data and relay it to Vikram lander, which will then transmit the data to Earth.

Both the lander and the rover are powered by sunlight. After 14 Earth days (1 Lunar day), the landing site will turn away from the sun, and the cold night and the absence of sunlight will make both of them inactive. There’s a possibility that they will revive with the next sunrise. Alternatively, they’ll lose their functions and stop to operate.

The call for a multipolar world

What happened?

Between 22-24 August, South Africa’s Johannesburg hosted the 15th BRICS summit. BRICS comprises five emerging economies–Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (thus called BRICS). The summit, hosted by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, was attended by PM Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, and Russian President Vladimir Putin (virtually).

Why does it matter?

Russia created BRIC in 2009 to challenge the world order dominated by the US and its Western allies and boost economic cooperation between the participating countries. South Africa joined the bloc in 2010. Today, BRICS countries account for over 40% of the world population and a quarter of the global economy.

What was on the table?

• Expansion

The major aim of the 2023 summit was expansion. Nearly 40 countries had shown interest in joining the bloc. The BRICS leaders unanimously decided to offer membership to six nations, expanding the bloc’s size to 11. These nations include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Argentina, Ethiopia and Iran.

• Common currency

During the summit, Brazil's President proposed that the BRICS nations create a common currency for trade and investment between each other to reduce their dependence on the dollar, which is currently the most traded currency in the world. However, other BRICS nations, barring Russia, have been stressing about using their national currencies instead.

• India-China border conflict

Though this issue was not on the official agenda, in a brief talk, PM Modi and President Xi agreed to resolve the tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh. They will direct the concerned officials to work towards withdrawing the troops. Earlier this month, military commanders from both sides had agreed to create buffer zones (LAC) and limit patrolling.

What’s next?

The six new countries are set to join BRICS officially in January 2024. Modi and Xi might attend the East Asia Summit beginning on September 6. Indonesia will host the summit. Xi is expected to travel to Delhi for the G20 summit beginning on September 9.

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