Chandrayaan-3: Countdown begins for India’s third moon mission

Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar exploration mission, will make India the fourth country to land its spacecraft on the surface of the moon and demonstrate the country’s abilities for safe and soft landing on lunar surface. According to the information, the spacecraft will be launched on a GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy lift launch vehicle. […]

Sonia Dham Last Updated : 13 July 2023, 04:11 PM IST

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Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar exploration mission, will make India the fourth country to land its spacecraft on the surface of the moon and demonstrate the country’s abilities for safe and soft landing on lunar surface.

According to the information, the spacecraft will be launched on a GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy lift launch vehicle. The countdown for the launch of the mission began on Thursday at 14:35 IST ahead of take-off on Friday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

Notably, this would be Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) follow-up attempt after the Chandrayaan-2 mission faced challenges during its soft landing in 2019. ISRO lost the contact with the lander when it was just a notch away from the moon’s surface.

It is to be noted here that the project of Chandrayaan-3 commenced in January 2020, which was planned for the launch in 2021, but due to Covid-19 pandemic the development got delayed.

Here are some facts you should know about Chandrayaan-3

One day on Moon is equal to 14 days on Earth. So, it will operate according to one lunar day. After the launch of Chandrayaan-3, it is expected that the journey from Earth to Moon will be completed on August 23.

Objective of the launch

The main objective of Chandrayaan-3 is to carry successful and smooth landing on Moon. This will help the scientist to know Moon better from Earth.

LVM-3 rocket

The Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM-III), formerly known as the GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) Mark-III, will carry out the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s space launch. Notably, it will be the launch vehicle’s fourth operational mission.

Two S2000 solid rocket boosters are installed on the LVM-3 to help with the thrust needed for takeoff. The L110 liquid stage will provide power to the launch vehicle once the solid boosters have separated from it. The CE25 cryogenic stage will assume control after the liquid stage is separated.

Modules of Chandrayaan-3

The spacecraft in Chandrayaan-3 consists of three modules: the lander, a propulsion and a rover. The propulsion module will carry the spacecraft from an injection orbit till 100 kilometre lunar orbit.

Weight and size of lander

The weight of the lander is approximately 1,750 kilograms including the rover, which weighs 26 kilograms by itself. The lander measures about 2 by 2 by 1.1 metres while the rover measures about 91 by 75 by 39 centimetres. Both the rover and lander have been designed the way so it can operate on the Moon for about 14 days.

Here’s what the ex-director of ISRO said

K Sivan, former director of ISRO, told ANI that the success of mission Chandrayan-3 will give a morale boost to programs like Gaganyan.

“We understood what went wrong with Chandrayaan-2 when we could not land on the moon’s surface, we recreated the failure modes and we ensured that this time we have success. The challenge is the same as Chandrayaan-2, same environment for landing. This time we hope that we have done enough based on the lesson of Chandrayaan-2 that gives us more confidence. In space there are always unknown unknowns…hope that all issues are addressed and that we emerge with success,” he said.

“We are getting tech landing on a celestial body. By landing successfully, we will acquire landing technology and it will be good for future generations. A number of scientific experiments are planned and scientists will have more knowledge of the moon’s geology and the earth’s origin,” he added.

Scientists seeks blessings a day ahead of mission

A day ahead of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, a team of ISRO scientists on Thursday visited and offered prayers at Tirupathi Venkatachalapathy Temple in Andhra Pradesh with a miniature model of Chandrayaan-3.

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