Chandrayaan-3 writes India into history, but why is the lunar south pole so important?

Mint Techcetra

On August 23, India became only the fourth nation ever to land on the moon. With this, India cemented its place as a global powerhouse in the world’s space race. The success erases Chandrayaan-2’s landing failure, highlighted further by Russia failing to land its own module just ahead of our feat. But why is the history-setting landing at the lunar south pole so difficult—and important? We decode the nuances of what has been one of the greatest milestones in the history of our nation.