India asserts ‘every right’ to name lunar areas after landing on Moon’s south pole

New Delhi, Aug 27 (EFE).- The head of the Indian space agency affirmed on Sunday that the country had “every right” to choose names for Moon areas after becoming the first country to land a spacecraft near the lunar south pole.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has named the point where the moon lander of Chandrayaan-3 touched down “Shiv Shakti,” derived from the names of the Hindu god Shiva and the divine cosmic energy called Shakti in Hinduism.

Modi also announced that the location where its predecessor Chandrayaan-2 had crashed following a failed attempt to land on the Moon in 2019 would be called “Tiranga,” named after India’s national flag.

The naming of the lunar site sparked a debate over whether India had the right to do so.

However, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chairman Sreedhara Somanath dismissed any controversy.

“The country has every right to name the landing site. Naming of the landing site is not the first incident. Several Indian names are already there on the Moon,” Somanath said.

“We have Sarabhai crater on the Moon. Other countries have also named places related to their scientific accomplishment. All places related to even minor experiments would be named. That is a tradition.’’

Nevertheless, the International Astronomical Union (IAU), of which India is a member, claims to have been the authority on planetary and satellite nomenclature since its establishment in 1919.

The agency maintains a working group responsible for officially approving the names of features on planetary surfaces or other celestial bodies, following a process in which scientists submit and justify their suggestions.

However, this bureaucratic procedure does not imply that countries like the United States or the former Soviet Union refrained from naming lunar spots as the space race progressed.

However, this bureaucratic procedure does not imply that countries like the United States or the former Soviet Union refrained from naming lunar spots as the space race progressed.

Scientist Paul D. Spudis, who passed away in 2018, wrote in Smithsonian Magazine in 2012 that many mission sites are informally given names initially.

Spudis, a former member of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in the US, mentioned that it was common practice for organizations like NASA to “informally” designate areas on the Moon during the Apollo Program.

Many of these names were later recognized by the UAI.

India achieved the milestone on Wednesday of being the first country to successfully land a probe on the unexplored south pole of the Moon.

The head of the space agency stated that the rover vehicle is traversing uncharted territory on the Moon, which scientists believe could contain crucial reserves of frozen water and other significant aspects of the Indian mission. EFE

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