 "Chandrayaan-3 landing site called Shiv Shakti: Who names sites on the Moon?")
In a momentous event that captured the historic landing of Chandrayaan-3, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the names of two significant lunar landing sites where Chandrayaan-3 landed and Chandrayaan-2 had crash-landed.
PM Modi unveiled the two names "Shivshakti Point" and "Tiranga Point" during a recent visit to the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network Mission Control Complex in Bengaluru.
The spot where the Chandrayaan-3 landed on the south pole of the Moon will now be known by the name of Shivshakti Point, and the site where the Chandrayaan-2 lander crash-landed on the Moon's surface in 2019 will be known as Tiranga Point.
Not only this, PM Modi also declared that August 23, the date of Chandrayaan-3's landing, will be celebrated as National Space Day in India, commemorating the historical achievement in the field of space exploration.
Inspiration behind Shivshakti
Shivshakti derives its name from Hindu mythology.
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Explaining the selection of Shivshakti as the touchdown point's name, PM Modi highlighted the intrinsic connection between humanitarian determination and the concept of Shiva.
“Shiva mein maanavata ke kalyan ka sankalp samaahit hai, aur Shakti se hamein un sankalpon ko poora karne ka saamarthya milta hai. Chandrama ka Shivshakti Point, Himalaya ke Kanyakumari se jude hone ka bodh karaata hai,” the Prime Minister said.
(The humanitarian resolve is integral to the concept of Shiva, and it is from Shakti that we get the ability to fulfil that resolve. Shiv Shakti Point on the Moon gives the sense of the unity of India from Kanyakumari to the Himalayas).
“And this Shakti is our Naari Shakti. Our mothers and daughters. It is said that Naari Shakti lies at the core of everything from creation to destruction. All of you have seen what a major role our women scientists have played in the Chandrayaan-3 mission…,” he said.
“Shivshakti Point will inspire the coming generations to use science for the welfare of humanity. The welfare of humanity, this is our supreme commitment,” he added.
Does India have the right to name the landing site on the Moon?
“The country [India] has every right to name the landing site,"Isro chief K Somanath said, adding, "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," Somanath said.
However, the Moon does not come under any single country's jurisdiction, making global exploration and landing missions viable. So, who names the sites on its surface, and why can't a country own the Moon?
Why can't any country own the Moon?
In 1966, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) came out with the Outer Space Treaty. Notably, this occurred during the Cold War era, when the two superpowers, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States, were at odds. This manifested in an arms race, economic competitiveness and the space race. Here, both were eager to achieve firsts, whether the first man on the Moon or the first astronauts in space.
Setting some common principles for space exploration, the Treaty said in its Article II: “Outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.”
Simply put, countries had to cooperate in their space exploration operations and could not stake a claim to it.
According to Alexander Soucek, head of public international law at the European Space Agency (ESA), “A nation can plant a flag on the Moon, but it doesn’t have any legal meaning or consequence…” The Treaty, however, makes no mention of naming sites on the Moon.
So, who names landing sites on the Moon?
Other rules for space activities are also established by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). India is one of the group's 92 members.
“The IAU has been the arbiter of planetary and satellite nomenclature since its inception in 1919,” says its website.
“The IAU has been the arbiter of planetary and satellite nomenclature since its inception in 1919,” says its website.
Meanwhile, in an article published in Smithsonian Magazine in 2012, the late scientist Paul D Spudis, who worked at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in the US, said that many mission sites first see names being given to them informally.
He added that there was initially limited information available about aspects such as the far side of the Moon. We can only see one side from Earth since it takes around 14 days for it to complete one revolution around the Earth and one rotation in the same time span. Therefore, only one side faces the Earth.
However, when American and Soviet spacecraft delivered progressively high-quality images, the most significant far-side craters were given the names of renowned scientists and engineers. These names were submitted to the IAU for consideration.
“An informal practice of naming landmarks was common during the Apollo missions. Names were given to the small craters and mountains near each landing site (e.g., Shorty, St George, Stone Mountain) but official names were used as well (e.g., Hadley Rille),” Spudis wrote in the article.
This was done to develop an easy shorthand instead of always using official names. The IAU lated gave “official” status to the majority of the informal names assigned during Apollo.
Are there any rules for naming space objects?
Yes, the IAU gives several suggestions. It stipulates that the name for planetary objects should be “simple, clear, and unambiguous” and should not duplicate existing names.
It has a slew of other rules, such as, “No names having political, military or religious significance may be used, except for names of political figures prior to the 19th century.”
Further, “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.”
As Spudis wrote, “…The location of specifically named craters has little rhyme or reason. Neither scientific prominence nor contribution guarantees any crater-endowed immortality. Copernicus and Archimedes are rightly honored with spectacular craters named for them. But Galileo and Newton (titans in the history of science) are fobbed off with insignificant or barely detectable features.”
The IAU also mentioned that the inspiration for the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn had previously come from Greco-Roman mythology. “The Jovian satellites have previously been named for Zeus/Jupiter’s lovers and favourites, but now Zeus’ descendants are also included as an allowable source of names… In order to internationalise the names, we now also allow names of giants and monsters in other mythologies.”
Has India ever named another site on the Moon?
Following the 2008 expedition, Chandrayaan-1, a spot where the probe crashed (as it was meant to for the purposes of the mission), was christened “Jawahar Sthal” after the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
According to G Madhavan Nair, the head of Isro from 2003 to 2009, then-Indian President and former Isro scientist Dr APJ Abdul Kalam had raised the question of making a symbolic note of India reaching the Moon.
Along with the Indian flag depicted on the Moon Impact Probe, carried by the spacecraft, he proposed naming the impact site after Nehru. It was on his birthday the landing was made, and he had long advocated for scientific developments and research in India. The IAU later accepted it, making it official.