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PremiumChandrayaan-3 highlights: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is embarking to achieve a successful soft landing on the Moon with the launch of Chandrayaan-3. The spacecraft is now primed for its scheduled moon landing on August 23. This endeavor places India on track to become the fourth nation globally to achieve this remarkable milestone, joining the company of the United States, Russia, and China.
The mission was launched effectively on July 14 via the GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota. It is poised to touch down on the moon's exterior come August 23. It represents India's third lunar expedition and its second endeavor to achieve a delicate landing on the Moon's terrain.
Former ISRO scientist Mylswamy Annadurai explained that once the lander module's deboosting process is on Friday, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft will prepare itself for the soft landing on the Moon.
ISRO Chairman had said earlier that the most critical part of the landing is the process of bringing the velocity of the lander from 30 km height to the final landing and the ability to transfer the spacecraft from horizontal to vertical direction.
Chandrayaan 3: The polar regions of the Moon are very different terrain due to the environment and the difficulties they present and therefore have remained unexplored. All the previous spacecraft to have reached the moon landed in the equatorial region, a few degrees latitude north or south of the lunar equator.
Through this mission, scientists will explore the possibility of the presence of water in permanently shadowed areas around it.
Chandrayaan 3: The distance between Lander module (comprising Lander Vikram and rover Pragyan) and the Moon's surface will shorten further on Friday. According to the ISRO, with the deboosting manoeuvre today, the Lander of Chandrayaan-3 will psoition itself in an orbit where the orbit's closest point to the Moon (Perilune) is 30 km and the farthest point (the Apolune) is 100 km.
Chandrayaan 3: According to former ISRO scientist Mylswamy Annadurai, the next important thing for the Chandrayaan-3 mission is its secure landing on the Moon.
The former ISRO scientist and Padma Shri awardee said that the Vikram lander now has to take its own action. As soon as the lander module will reach 30 kilometre away from Moon, it should know how to thrust to fire, what orientation to fire, and falling vertically on the surface.
Chandrayaan-3 LIVE: ISRO Chairman has revealed that the critical part during the soft landing of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft would be the direction of the spacecraft. He said the velocity at the start of the landing process is almost 1.68 km per second, but this speed is horizontal to the surface of the moon. The Chandrayaan-3 here is tilted almost 90 degrees, it has to become vertical. "The ability to transfer the spacecraft from horizontal to vertical direction is the 'trick we have to play' here," ISRO Chairman said.
Chandrayaan-3 LIVE: On Friday, the Lander module comprising Vikram and rover Pragyan will descend to lower orbit by evening. This will put the lander in a place where the Perilune (closest point to the Moon) is 30 kilometres and Apolune (farthest point from the Moon) is 100 km.
Today's deboosting to lower orbit will pave the way for a soft landing on the Moon's surface, scheduled for 23 August.
Chandrayaan-3 LIVE: Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh said he is more than 100% confident that Chandrayaan-3 will make a safe landing on Moon. He said, "Most of the critical stages are over now...Now I think I'm quite confident, more than 100% it's going to be a safe landing".
Chandrayaan-3 LIVE: With India attempting to send its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft (comprising Lander Vikram and Rover Pragyan) to the Moon, here is the list of seven rovers that were sent to the celestial body so far. China and the Soviets have sent two rovers each to the Moon till now. China's Yutu (2013) and Yutu-2 (2019) and Soviet's Lunkokhod 1 (1970) and Lunkokhod 2 (1973) were sent to the Moon. On the other hand, America has sent three rovers to the Moon--Apollo 16 LRV (1972), Apollo 15 LRV (1971), and Apollo 17 LRV (1972), respectively.
Chandrayaan-3 LIVE: According to Russian media, Luna-25 closed the distance to the Moon by 50 km yesterday. The Russian spacecraft has entered the orbit of an artificial satellite on the Moon, according to Russian state space corporation Roscosmos.
Chandrayaan-3 LIVE: Race to Moon's south polar region has intensified with India's Chandrayaan-3 and Russia's Luna-25 gearing up for lunar landings next week. The proximity, possibly overlap, of their landing dates--between August 21 and 23 for Luna-25; for Chandrayaan-3 the possible landing date is between 23-24 August.
This mission is significant for India because Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) previous attempt (Chandrayaan-2) got failed in 2019. However, learning from failures, the team of scientists has made several changes to make a successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3 pace craft. If India succeeds this time, then the country will join the list of a small group of countries that have made a soft landing on the Moon's surface using a robotic lunar rover. So far, the US, China, and the former Soviet Union have managed to complete their missions to Moon successfully.
Chandrayaan-3 LIVE: The Lander Module comprising the lander Vikram and rover Pragyan will descend to a slightly lower orbit today that will bring it closer to the Moon's surface--this is deboosting. According to ISRO, Lander Module is expected to be placed in the orbit where the Perilune (the orbit's closest point to the Moon) is 30 km and Apolune (farthest point from the Moon) is 100 km today (18 August).
Chandrayaan-3 LIVE: According to ISRO, the lander module's three payloads will study the lunar surface. Payload RAMBHA-LP will measure plasma ions and electrons density. haSTE Chandra's Surface Thermo Physical Experiment -- to carry out the measurements of thermal properties of the lunar surface near the polar region. And, ILSA (Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity) will measure seismicity around the landing site.
The Rover, after the soft-landing, derives the chemical composition and infers the mineralogical composition of the Moon. Rover's other payload-Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS)- will determine the elemental composition of lunar soil and rocks around the lunar landing site.
Chandrayaan-3 LIVE: ISRO Chairman S Somanath said the most critical part of the landing is the process of bringing the velocity of the lander from 30 km height to the final landing, and the ability to transfer the spacecraft from horizontal to vertical direction.
Somanath said that the velocity at the start of the landing process is almost 1.68 km per second, but this speed is horizontal to the surface of the moon. The Chandrayaan-3 here is tilted almost 90 degrees, it has to become vertical.
On Friday, Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft's Lander Module, comprising the lander Vikram and rover Pragyan is now ready to be lowered into an orbit that takes it closer to the moon's surface, where the Perilune (the orbit's closest point to the Moon) is 30 km and Apolune (farthest point from the Moon) is 100 km. This process is known as 'deboost'.
The propulsion module is the primary workhorse of the spacecraft, responsible for carrying the Lander Module to a safe orbit around the Moon till final separation.
According to the ISRO, the Propulsion Module will continue its journey in the current orbit for months/years.
And, the payload of the Propulsion Module- -- SHAPE -- Spectro- polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth- will study Earth from lunar orbit.
The ISRO said the SHAPE is an experimental payload to study the spectro-polarimetric signatures of the Earth in the near-infrared wavelength range.
After the separation of the lander from the propulsion module, Chandrayaan-I Project Director M Annadurai said, “Now really the match starts. These are the final overs we are talking about". The Propulsion Module will continue its journey in the current orbit for months/years, ISRO said.
On Friday, the lander is expected to undergo a "deboost" (the process of slowing down) to place it in an orbit, where the Perilune (the orbit's closest point to the Moon) is 30 km and Apolune (farthest point from the Moon) is 100 km. The deboost is likely to take place at 4 pm (IST).
"The velocity at the starting of the landing process is almost 1.68 km per second, but this speed is horizontal to the surface of the moon. The Chandrayaan-3 here is tilted almost 90 degrees, it has to become vertical. So, this whole process of turning from horizontal to vertical is a very interesting calculation mathematically. We have done a lot of simulations. It is here where we had the problem last time (Chandrayaan-2)," Somanath explained.
The race to the uncharted south pole of the Moon is also hotting up with Russia's Luna-25 also gearing up for lunar landings next week. The proximity, possible overlap, of their landing dates -- August 21-23 for Luna-25 and August 23-24 for Chandrayaan-3 -- has heightened excitement in the scientific community worldwide.
Chandrayaan-2 had failed in its lunar phase when its lander 'Vikram' crashed into the surface of the moon following anomalies in the braking system in the lander while attempting a soft landing on September 7, 2019. Chandrayaan's maiden mission was in 2008.
Polar regions of the moon are a very different terrain due to the environment and the difficulties they present and therefore have remained unexplored. All the previous spacecraft to have reached the moon landed in the equatorial region, a few degrees latitude north or south of the lunar equator. The moon's south pole region is also being explored because there could be a possibility of presence of water in permanently shadowed areas around it.
If the Chandrayaan-3 mission succeeds in landing a robotic lunar rover in ISRO's second attempt in four years, India will become the fourth country to master the technology of soft-landing on the moon's surface after the US, China and the former Soviet Union.
Chandrayaan-2 had failed in its lunar phase when its lander 'Vikram' crashed into the surface of the moon following anomalies in the braking system in the lander while attempting a soft landing on September 7, 2019. Chandrayaan's maiden mission was in 2008.
"Now Vikram has to take its own course of action. Further, it has to separate. So even after separating, then the major event comes. A major event is the 4800 Newton thrusters. They have to fire to take it to the lower orbit. That will also be done in two steps and ensuring that all the systems are working properly these two steps will go down, put a 100-kilometre orbit. Then from 100 go to the 30-kilometer orbit... that's very very vital. But when it's going very closer, closer to the Earth," Mylswamy Annadurai said while speaking to ANI.
After the successful separation of Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander module from the propulsion module on Thursday, former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist, Mylswamy Annadurai, said that the final and important thing now of the lander is its secure landing on the Moon.
The lander will have the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the rover, which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility.
After separating from the propulsion module, the landing phase of the spacecraft will commence, where the space agency will perform a series of complex braking manoeuvres to facilitate a soft landing.
The mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3 are to demonstrate safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, to demonstrate rover roving on the Moon, and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.
Altimeters: Laser & RF based Altimeters
Velocimeters: Laser Doppler Velocimeter & Lander Horizontal Velocity Camera
Inertial Measurement: Laser Gyro based Inertial referencing and Accelerometer package
Propulsion System: 800N Throttleable Liquid Engines, 58N attitude thrusters & Throttleable Engine Control Electronics
Navigation, Guidance & Control (NGC): Powered Descent Trajectory design and associate software elements
Hazard Detection and Avoidance: Lander Hazard Detection & Avoidance Camera and Processing Algorithm
Landing Leg Mechanism.
To demonstrate Safe and Soft Landing on Lunar Surface
To demonstrate Rover roving on the moon and
To conduct in-situ scientific experiments.
Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of landing site.
Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature; Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) for measuring the seismicity around the landing site; Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate the plasma density and its variations. A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA is accommodated for lunar laser ranging studies.
Chandrayaan-I Project Director M Annadurai said: "It is a great moment and this will imply how the lander is performing and the lander will be verified and tested and brought closer and closer to the moon.. then it will be given the required commands such that it takes over on the cue on August 23 to go all the way to the targeted place and have a safe and secure landing".
"The SHAPE (Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth) payload onboard it (Propulsion Module) would perform spectroscopic study of the Earth’s atmosphere and measure the variations in polarization from the clouds on Earth – to accumulate signatures of Exoplanets that would qualify for our habitability!" ISRO said, adding that this payload is shaped by its U R Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru
ISRO Chairman S Somanath had recently said the most critical part of the landing is the process of bringing the velocity of the lander from 30 km height to the final landing, and that the ability to transfer the spacecraft from horizontal to vertical direction is the "trick we have to play" here.
Post its launch on July 14, Chandrayaan-3 entered into the lunar orbit on August 5, following which orbit reduction maneuvers were carried out on the satellite on August 6, 9, 14 and 16, ahead of separation of both its modules today, in the runup to the landing on August 23.
Landing Module is set to descend to a slightly lower orbit upon a deboosting planned for tomorrow around 1600 Hrs., IST , says ISRO
Developed by ISRO, Chandrayaan-3 includes a lander module named Vikram, which means "valour" in Sanskrit, and a rover named Pragyan, Sanskrit for "wisdom".
After separating from the propulsion module, the landing phase of the spacecraft will commence, where the space agency will perform a series of complex braking manoeuvres to facilitate a soft landing.
Instruments onboard will "perform spectroscopic study of the Earth's atmosphere and measure the variations in polarisation from the clouds on Earth -- to accumulate signatures of Exoplanets that would qualify for our habitability!"
Chandrayaan-3 Live Updates: The objectives of Chandrayaan-3, India's third lunar mission, are safe and soft landing, rover roving on the moon's surface, and in-situ scientific experiments.
Chandrayaan-3 Live Updates: In the next step Lander Module will descend to a slightly lower orbit around the Moon on Friday.
Chandrayaan-3 Live Updates: Now, the Vikram lander will embark on the final phase of the Moon mission without a propulsion module. The next Lander Module move will take place tomorrow, August 18, around 1600 hrs IST.
Lander Module of Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft comprising the lander and rover has successfully separated from the Propulsion Module today.
Next, the Lander Module will descend to a slightly lower orbit around the Moon on Friday. The propulsion module will continue its journey in the current orbit for months or years.
ISRO informed that the LAnder Module (LM) said, 'Thnaks for the ride, mate' after it successfully separated from the Propulsion Module (PM).
Chandrayaan-3 Live Updates: India's Chandrayaan-3 mission marked another giant leap in its lunar quest as the 'Vikram' lander module of the spacecraft successfully separated from the propulsion module on Thursday.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission's lander is named after Vikram Sarabhai (1919–1971), who is widely regarded as the father of the Indian space programme.
Chandrayaan-3 Live Updates: “Meanwhile, the Propulsion Module continues its journey in the current orbit for months/years. The SHAPE payload onboard it would: perform spectroscopic study of the Earth’s atmosphere and, measure the variations in polarization from the clouds on Earth – to accumulate signatures of Exoplanets that would qualify for our habitability! This payload is SHAPEd by U R Rao Satellite Centre/ISRO, Bengaluru," ISRO added.
