Exciting news from India! The country has taken the first step towards its second attempt to land on the Moon with the launch of the Chandrayaan-3 mission. The spacecraft was launched on the LVM-3 rocket, India’s heaviest lift vehicle. This launch comes almost three years after the Chandrayaan-2 mission, which successfully placed a spacecraft into lunar orbit but unfortunately failed to land due to a software problem. But India is not giving up. They have learned from their mistakes and are trying again with the Chandrayaan-3 mission.
This time, the mission consists of a propulsion module, a new Vikram lander, and a small rover named Pragyan. The spacecraft will follow a more circuitous but fuel-efficient route to the Moon. It is scheduled to reach lunar orbit on August 5, with a landing attempt planned for as early as August 23. If successful, India will become the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, joining the ranks of the Soviet Union, the United States, and China.
What’s impressive is that India has developed the Chandrayaan-3 mission on a shoestring budget of about $90 million. This mission is crucial for the Indian space agency to demonstrate its competence, especially as China has been making significant progress in lunar exploration. The Vikram lander aims to touch down further south than any previous lunar mission.
The mission is designed to survive for a “lunar day,” or two Earth weeks, on the Moon’s surface. It carries seven scientific payloads, including instruments to measure seismic activity and determine the composition of the Moon’s rocks and soil near the landing site.
In addition to the mission itself, India has also signed the Artemis Accords with NASA, signaling closer ties in spaceflight and lunar exploration. This collaboration opens up opportunities for India to participate in NASA’s efforts to return humans to the Moon through the Artemis program. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson plans to visit India later this year to discuss and establish a strategic framework for human spaceflight cooperation.
Working with India is significant because they are the only other signatory of the Artemis Accords working towards launching their own astronauts into orbit. It’s an exciting time for space exploration and international collaboration.
India has taken its first leap towards its second moon landing mission with the launching of Chandrayaan-2 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. The launch vehicle, called the GSLV(Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) Mk III, belongs to India’s national space agency ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) and it was a spectacular display of technological skills and space prowess.
The mission started on 22nd July 2019 at exactly 2.43 pm and will conduct detailed studies of the moon’s topography, mineral composition, atmosphere and other related features through various scientific experiments. The scientific objectives of this mission include high-resolution mapping of the moon’s surface and detailed studies of the chemical and mineral composition of the lunar surface.
The Chandrayaan 2 consists of three modules- The Orbiter, Lander (Vikram) and Rover (Pragyan). The Orbiter will revolve around the moon and will observe the surface, atmosphere, and minerals. The Lander (Vikram) will further descend to the moon surface and deploy the Rover (Pragyan). The Rover will be designed to explore and analyse the chemical and mineral composition of the lunar surface.
To reach its intended orbit, Chandrayaan-2 will first enter the earth parking orbit after the launch and then ISRO will fire the rocket’s engine several times to finally propel it towards the moon. It is expected that, Chandrayaan-2 will reach the lunar orbit on 20th August 2019. After about 2 weeks of orbiting the moon, ISRO will make the Vikram Lander soft land near the south pole of the moon, a hitherto unexplored region on the moon.
India’s first lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, was launched in 2008 and it is hoped that Chandrayaan-2 will significantly enhance our understanding of the moon. This mission has made India only the fourth nation in the world to launch its own mission to the moon after the United States, Russia, and China.
All of us should be proud of this latest achievement by ISRO which reflects our capabilities to take up challenging space missions. We at ISRO are sure that Chandrayaan-2 will prove to be a major milestone in India’s space exploration.
