The landing of Chandrayaan-3 would be postponed until August 27 if any aspect of the lander module appears to be unfavorable, the Space Applications Centre-ISRO announced on Monday.
The decision on the landing would be made based on the state of the lander module and the lunar environment, according to Nilesh M. Desai, director of the ISRO’s Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad.
“On August 23, two hours before Chandrayaan-3 lands on the Moon, we will decide on whether or not it will be appropriate to land it at that time based on the health of the lander module and the conditions on the Moon. In case, if any factor appears to be not favourable, then we will land the module on the Moon on August 27. No problem should occur and we will be able to land the module on August 23,” Director Desai said.
Today in New Delhi, ISRO Chairman and Secretary of the Department of Space S. Somanath met with Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, Atomic Energy, and Space Jitendra Singh to inform him of the readiness of “Chandrayaan-3” for the August 23, 2023 moon landing.
The minister was updated by the chairman of ISRO on the condition of Chandrayaan-3, who is now operating flawlessly and without any contingencies planned for Wednesday.
The condition of Chandrayaan-3 will be closely watched throughout the course of the following two days. According to him, the final landing sequence will be loaded two days beforehand and tested.
During the meeting, Minister Jitendra Singh expressed his optimism that “Chandrayaan-3” would write a new chapter in the history of planetary exploration while operating under the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
ISRO said the Chandrayaan-3 is set to land on the moon on August 23, 2023, around 18:04 hours IST.
Live actions will be available on the ISRO website, its YouTube channel, Facebook, and public broadcaster DD National TV from 17:27 IST on Aug 23, 2023.
While the Chandrayaan-2 mission was only “partially successful” since the lander lost contact after a hard landing, the ISRO successfully established two-way communication between the Chandrayaan-3 lander module and the still-orbiting Chandrayaan-2 orbiter. In a significant development, the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter which was already fixed around the moon established a two-way connection with the lander module of Chandrayaan-3 on Monday.
Earlier today, the ISRO shared new images of the lunar far side area captured by the Chandrayaan-3.
After the United States, Russia, and China, India will be the fourth nation in the world to accomplish this accomplishment, but it will be the only nation ever to touch down on the lunar south pole.
Three things are the main goals of the Chandrayaan-3 mission: to show off a safe, soft landing on the moon’s surface; to show off rover roving on the moon; and to carry out in-situ scientific research.
The development phase of Chandrayaan-3 began in January 2020, and the launch was scheduled for some time in 2021. The Covid-19 pandemic, however, caused an unanticipated delay in the mission’s advancement.
Ahead of the much-awaited soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the south pole of the Moon, former director of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and in-charge of the previous lunar mission ‘Chandrayaan-2′, K Sivan earlier today said that the mission will be a “grand success”.
“It’s a very anxious moment…I’m sure that this time it will be a grand success,” Mr Sivan said.
“We have our own system and we will be establishing a soft landing without any problem. But it is a complex process,” he said while responding to a question asked whether there would be any impact after the failure of Russia’s Luna-25 mission. Russia’s moon mission failed after its Luna-25 spacecraft spun out of control and smashed into the moon on Sunday.
He said that after reviewing the Chandrayaan-2 mission’s findings, corrective actions had been made. When questioned about if those extra systems were indigenous as well, Sivan responded, “Everything is indigenous.”
Earlier today, the Lander Hazard Detection and Avoidance Camera (LHDAC) of the ISRO spacecraft published pictures of the lunar far side region. During the descent, this camera helps locate a secure landing spot free of stones and deep ditches.
Notably, the spacecraft’s ‘Vikram’ lander module just completed a successful separation from the propulsion module, undertook critical deboosting maneuvers, and sank to a somewhat lower orbit. The lander for the Chandrayaan-3 project bears Vikram Sarabhai’s name. Vikram Sarabhai, who lived from 1939 to 1971, is widely regarded as the founder of the Indian space program.
A GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle was used for the launch of the spacecraft that was placed in the lunar orbit on August 5 and since then it has been through a series of orbital manoeuvres been lowered closer to the moon’s surface.
It has been a month and seven days since the Indian Space Research Organisation launched the Chandrayaan-3 mission on July 14. The spacecraft was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota.
The stated objectives of Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar mission, are safe and soft landing, rover roving on the moon’s surface, and in-situ scientific experiments.
The approved cost of Chandrayaan-3 is ₹ 250 crores (excluding launch vehicle cost).
The development phase of Chandrayaan-3 began in January 2020, and the launch was scheduled for some time in 2021. The Covid-19 pandemic, however, caused an unanticipated delay in the mission’s advancement.
The first-ever worldwide map of lunar sodium, improved knowledge of crater size distribution, unmistakable detection of lunar surface water ice with IIRS instrument, and more are some of the major scientific achievements from Chandrayaan-2.
