Indian Space Research Council ie ISRO has announced that it will send its mission Chandrayaan-3 to the moon on July 14 at 2.35 pm.
This is the third attempt after ISRO’s initial two missions, which is being seen as a follow-up mission to Chandrayaan-2. In this mission, soft landing will be attempted on the lunar surface, this position is achieved only by three countries Russia, America and China.
Along with this, ISRO has also announced its first solar campaign, Aditya-L1, which will be launched in the month of August this year. But at present the most talked about is Chandrayaan-3.
So let’s know everything that we know about ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 mission and what does it mean for the country?
When will Chandrayaan-3 be launched?
ISRO chief S. Somnath told on Wednesday (June 28, 2023) that Chandrayaan-3 is ready for launch.
S. Somnath said, “The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has been fully assembled and we have completed its testing.”
Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. It will be launched by LMV 3 rocket, which was earlier known as GSLV Mark 3.
What is the purpose of Chandrayaan-3?
The total budget of Chandrayaan-3 has been said to be around Rs 615 crore. ISRO has given three important goals of this mission:
- Safe and soft landing of Chandrayaan-3’s lander on the lunar surface.
- Piloting its rover on the lunar surface.
- Scientific testing.
Like Chandrayaan-2, Chandrayaan-3 will also have a lander (a spacecraft that will make a soft landing on the lunar surface) and a rover (a spacecraft that will move around on the lunar surface).
As soon as it reaches the surface of the moon, the lander and the rover will be activated for the next one lunar day i.e. 14 Earth days.
The goal of ISRO’s lunar mission is to make a soft landing in the south polar region of the moon.
ISRO tried to land Chandrayaan-2 on the moon in September 2019 but then its Vikram lander was damaged.
The ISRO chief then told the news agency PTI, “The picture from the orbiter shows that Vikram Lander has made a hard landing on the moon. The orbiter orbiting the moon has taken a thermal image of Vikram Lander.”
Landing of a spacecraft on the moon can be done in two ways. One is soft landing in which the speed of the spacecraft decreases and it gradually successfully lands on the surface of the moon. On the other hand, the second landing is a hard landing, in which the spacecraft collides with the surface of the moon and crashes.
Based on the lessons learned from Chandrayaan-2, ISRO has made changes in the design and texture of its upcoming mission.
According to news agency IANS, there is a possibility that ISRO will once again name its lander Vikram and rover Pragyan.
This mission will look at the chemical elements and natural resources like soil, water particles on the lunar surface. This campaign will significantly increase our knowledge about the texture of the moon.
For scientific testing, the spacecraft is carrying several instruments, including a seismometer to measure lunar earthquakes. Scientists will be able to know the temperature of the moon’s surface and other elements of the atmosphere there with such a test.
Chandrayaan-3 will also carry the Spectro-Polarimeter of Visible Planet Earth (SHAPE), which will provide our scientists with important data to gather information about minor planets orbiting the Moon and other planets outside our solar system where life is possible.
Why is Chandrayaan-3 so important?
The mission of Chandrayaan-3 is important not only for India but also for the scientific community of the whole world.
The lander will go to that surface of the moon, about which no information is available so far. Therefore, with this campaign, the information about the moon, the only natural satellite of our earth, will increase further.
This will develop the capacity of future space research not only about the moon but also about other planets.
What happened in India’s earlier lunar missions?
Chandrayaan-3 is the third space mission of ISRO regarding the moon, it is also known as the Indian Lunar Exploration Program.
India launched its first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 in 2008. There was also an orbiter and impact probe on it but it crashed near Shackleton Crater. Later this place was named as Jawahar Point. With this, India became the fourth country in the world to hoist its flag on the moon. Before that America, Russia and Japan had achieved this success.
Then 312 days after its launch, it lost contact with the earth. But it was informed that 95 percent of the target of this campaign has been achieved before the communication was lost.
Although the mixed success achieved then was a huge step in India’s space program. Chandrayaan-2 also played an important role in finding water particles on the moon.
After 10 years, on 22 July 2019, Chandrayaan-2 was launched with Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover.
But on 6 September 2019, when it attempted a soft landing on the lunar surface, Vikram lost contact with the lander. Three months later, a NASA satellite found its wreckage and released its picture.
The Vikram lander may have failed but the orbiter continued to collect important information about the Moon and its atmosphere. And now India is going to launch its Chandrayaan-3 mission.