India’s 3rd moon mission, Chandrayaan-3, was successfully launched onboard a Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM-3) rocket from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 14.
- It was launched from the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV-MK III) heavy-lift rocket.
- The Vikram lander of the mission is planned to soft-land on the surface of the South Pole region of the Moon on August 23.
- This is India’s second attempt at soft-landing robotic instruments on the lunar surface after the previous attempt, Chandrayaan-2, failed in 2019. Thus far, only three countries, the U.S., Russia and China, have successfully soft-landed on the moon.
- Around 16 minutes after the LVM-3 lifted off, the spacecraft separated from the rocket. It was an integrated module comprising the propulsion module, the lander module, and the rover.
- The lander can soft-land at a specified lunar site and deploy the rover. The landing site of the latest mission is more or less the same as the Chandrayaan-2: near the south pole of the moon at 70 degrees latitude.
- The rover will perform in-situ chemical studies of the lunar surface as it moves around. The lander also has scientific instruments to study the lunar surface and subsurface.
- The Chandrayaan-3 mission has three major objectives: Demonstrate safe and soft landing on the surface of the Moon, Conduct rover operations on the Moon, and Conduct on-site experiments on the Lunar surface.
Three modules:
- The Chandrayaan-3 consists of an indigenous propulsion module (PM), lander module (LM). The mission’s objective is to develop and demonstrating new technologies required for inter-planetary missions.
- The propulsion module will carry the lander (containing the rover) from the EPO around earth to a circular orbit around the moon, at an altitude of 100 km.
- The propulsion module has Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and Polari metric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit.
- Lander payloads: 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.
- Rover payloads: Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of landing site.
India’s past moon missions
- In 2019, Chandrayaan-2, captured the world’s attention when it successfully placed the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover near the Moon’s South Pole. But the mission experienced partial setbacks.
- The Vikram lander on Chandrayaan-2 had crashed on the lunar surface while attempting to land.
- The 2008 Chandrayaan-1 mission was immensely successful and it had documented evidence of water molecules on the Moon.
