Chandrayaan-3 launch: Significance of India’s moon mission. When will it reach the moon?
Chandrayaan-3 Mission: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to launch the Chandrayaan-3 mission on July 14, aiming to land a rover on the moon's surface to study it.
Chandrayaan-3 News: The upcoming Chandrayaan-3 mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is scheduled to take off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, at 2.35 PM IST on Friday, July 14.
The mission follows Chandrayaan-2 where scientists aim to demonstrate various capabilities including reaching the orbit of the moon, making a soft landing on the lunar surface using a lander, and a rover coming out of the lander to study the surface of the moon.
According to scientists, after the lift-off at 2.35 pm on Friday, around 16 minutes after lift-off, the propulsion module is expected to get separated from the rocket and would orbit the earth for about 5-6 times in an elliptical cycle with 170 km closest and 36,500 km farthest from earth moving towards the lunar orbit.
Chandrayaan-3 expected to reach the moon by August 24
ISRO scientists have tentatively scheduled a soft landing on the lunar surface expected to take place by August 23-24 making India join elite nations to achieve the feat. Chandrayaan-3’s development phase commenced in January 2020 with plans to launch it somewhere in 2021, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays in the development process.
Then Prime Minister, the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced the Chandrayaan program in 2003. Chandrayaan-1 took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in 2008, but it crashed near the lunar South Pole -- confirming the presence of water molecules on the Moon's surface.
In 2019, Chandrayaan-2 launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. Vikram Lander was separated while orbiting the moon in a 100kms lunar polar orbit, however, communication from the lander to the ground stations was lost at an altitude of 2.1 km from the surface of the moon.
Significance of Chandrayaan-3 mission
The significance of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, unlike its unsuccessful predecessor, is that the Propulsion Module has a payload -- SHAPE -- Spectro- polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth to study Earth from lunar orbit, according to PTI reports.
ISRO said the SHAPE is an experimental payload to study the spectro-polarimetric signatures of the Earth in the near-infrared wavelength range. Apart from the SHAPE payload, the Propulsion Module's main function is to carry the Lander Module from the launch vehicle injection orbit to lander separation.
The lander module after landing on the surface of the moon has payloads including RAMBHA-LP which is to measure the near-surface plasma ions and electrons density and its changes, ChaSTE Chandra's Surface Thermo Physical Experiment -- to carry out the measurements of thermal properties of the lunar surface near-polar region and ILSA (Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity) to measure seismicity around the landing site and delineating the structure of the lunar crust and mantle.
The Rover, after the soft-landing, would come out of the lander module and study the surface of the moon through its payloads APXS - Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer - to derive the chemical composition and infer mineralogical composition to further enhance understanding of the lunar surface.
Rover, which has a mission life of 1 lunar day (14 Earth days) also has another payload Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) to determine the elemental composition of lunar soil and rocks around the lunar landing site, ISRO said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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First Published:14 Jul 2023, 12:25 PM IST
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