India has now sent three missions to the Moon, of which two have been successful while one saw a partial failure. Its latest mission, Chandrayaan-3, created unprecedented ripples which went far and wide, announcing India’s space prowess globally.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech at the Bengaluru headquarters of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on August 26 announced that the landing spot of Chandrayaan-3 will be named Shiv Shakti.“In general, there has been a tradition across the world with such kinds of successful missions, to give a name to that point,” Modi said. He revealed that there was also a discussion to name the spot where the Chandrayaan-2 met its end after crashing in 2019. However, it was believed that this could be done only after the next mission, Chandrayaan-3, succeeds in soft-landing. The spot where Chandrayaan-2 crashed has now been named “Tiranga”.
Who names the landing sites on Moon?
The International Astronomical Union (IAU), which has 92 members under it (including India), has been overseeing the naming of planetary and lunar sites since 1919. As per the IAU’s website, its Working Groups usually handle the naming process.
Procedure to naming sites on planets, satellites
When the images of a planet or a satellite are obtained for the first time, names for a few important gestures are proposed to the IAU by the members of the appropriate IAU task group.
Following this, when higher resolution images and maps come into the picture, investigators mapping or describing specific surfaces or geological formations put in requests for naming additional features.
Post this, anyone could suggest that a specific name be chosen by a Task Group. However, there is no guarantee that the name will be accepted.
The names which are picked by the group are pushed ahead by the task group chair to the Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN).
The names are considered approved as official IAU nomenclature after the successful review by vote of the members of the WGPSN. These names can be used on maps and in publications.
The names which receive the approval are immediately entered into the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, and posted on its website.
There is an option to raise objections to the names. The objections can be put forward by mailing the IAU General-Secretary within three months from the time the name was placed on the website.
In general, the naming process takes a little while. In case of the Chang’e 5, China’s Moon mission, its landing site was named Statio Tianchuan. ‘Statio’ means a post or station in Latin. The mission landed on the lunar surface on December 1, 2020. The name was approved by the IAU in May 2021. The word ‘Tianchuang’ reportedly comes from a Chinese constellation name.
Norms for naming Space objects
The IAU has put down certain suggestions for naming Space objects. Some of them are as follows:
In case of planetary objects, the name should be “simple, clear, and unambiguous” and should not duplicate existing names.
It also asks to stay away from names having political, military or religious significance. The names of political figures before the 19th century are however considered admissible.
Another suggestion reads, “Commemoration of persons on planetary bodies should not normally be a goal in itself, but may be employed in special circumstances… Persons being so honored must have been deceased for at least three years, before a proposal may be submitted.”
India naming sites on Moon
After the 2008 Chandrayaan-1 mission, the site where the probe was made to crash as part of the mission was named “Jawahar Sthal” after the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
Earlier on Sunday, ISRO chief S Somanath said India has “every right” to naming the Chandrayaan-3 landing site. “The naming of the landing site is not the first incident. Several Indian names are already there on the Moon. We have a 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,” he added.
