He’s not denying the landing, he’s arguing that 69° S latitude doesn’t qualify as the South Pole. According to the article NASA defines the South Pole region as anything between 80 and 90 degrees.
It’s more a semantic argument than anything else. They’re not disputing where the probe landed, but what counts as the polar region on the moon. India says the probe is far enough south that it would be considered in the polar regions if it was on earth. The Chinese guy says nuh-uhh, the moon’s axis is less tilted than earth so it’s polar region is smaller. I think he’s got a point, but it’s kind of a boring one.
I don’t really see why they even needed to lie about landing on the south pole, India did something many other nations (with space programs going back much further) have been failing to do for decades now.
It’s like finding a cure to cancer and saying you’ve found a potion of eternal youth, why lie about what you’ve done when you’ve just basically aced a huge scientific achievement.
Add comment