Rupa
All eyes on Srihorikota! The Indians are waiting with bated breath for mission Chandrayan-3, a dream project for ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization). ISRO is to launch a rocket carrying a lunar land rover. If the mission is successful, it will be a giant leap for India in space exploration. If everything goes as planned, a soft landing is expected to happen around August 23. ISRO will keep giving updates from time to time.
The success of Chandrayan-3 will add to ISRO’s decade-long embellished records. The purpose of the mission is to put a rover and a lander on the lunar South Pole.
The ISRO scientists have designed LVM3 (Launch Vehicle Mark III), also referred to as Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III, to launch Chandrayan-3. The much-awaited event will take place today, at 2.35 PM from Srihorikota, Andhra Pradesh.
ISRO on Chandrayan 3
“The countdown is progressing at SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota. Propellant filling in the L110 stage is completed. Propellant filling in the C25 stage is commencing,” ISRO tweeted.
What Makes Landing on Lunar South Pole So Tough?
Moon, the only natural satellite of the Earth, has always fascinated poets, philosophes, common people and scientists alike. However, to scientists, the moon is more than a source of soft, velvety shine that triggers volcanic eruption of romance. It is an intriguing celestial object that they have always wanted to know from a close quarter.
Several attempts have been made to reach the moon and search for any probability of life on the lunar surface. The South Pole of the moon is more fascinating and baffling for scientists because reaching there means overcoming many challenges.
What ISRO Chief Says
ISRO chief S Somanath said yesterday, “The Chandrayaan-3 launch is at 2:35pm tomorrow, our strong and big rocket LVM3 will launch this mission. Tomorrow, Chandrayaan-3 will start its long journey and orbit the Earth, thereafter it will slowly travel to the moon over the next 30 days. If all goes well, we are looking at a Lunar soft-landing around 23rd August or in the following days,”
ISRO Chief added that each of the previous lunar missions had been successful in its own way and said, “”I need the blessings of Changalamma Devi (the temple’s presiding deity), so I came here for praying for the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission.”. A group of ISRO scientists visited Venkatachalapathi Temple and Sri Chengalamma Temple yesterday to offer prayers to the deities for success of Chandrayan-3.
The scientists at ISRO are keeping their fingers crossed after their last lunar mission failed in 2019.
Here are 8 important points to know about Chandrayan 3
- Vikram, the moon lander, will be perched on LVM3, a heavy lift launch vehicle, also named the Bahubali rocket. The height of the renamed launched vehicle Mark 3 (LM-3), the GSLV is 43.5 meters, which is half of Delhi’s Qutb Minar.
- The spacecraft will take 40 days to complete the journey and is expected to land on moon on August 23.
- “The main lacuna in the last Chandrayaan-2 mission was that there were off-nominal conditions that were initiated in the system. Everything was not nominal. And the craft was not able to handle the off-nominal condition for a safe landing,” ISRO Chief S Somnath told an Indian news channel in an exclusive interview.
- The indigenously built mooncraft will touch down on the lunar South Pole where scientists have found traces of water molecules, which have raised the possibility of life on moon. The finding was made during India’s first lunar mission in 2008 and it surprised the world.
- Vikram, after its soft landing, will release the rover, namely Pragyan, which will travel the moon’s surface for a lunar day (14 Earth days) and perform scientific experiments.
- ISRO scientists are hopeful that success of the mission will help them analyse the lunar soil.
- ISRO scientists revealed that they have reduced the number of engines to be loaded on the lander from five to four and also done software update. Everything, even the minor things, has undergone rigorous and repeated testing.
- S Somnath explains that the new mission has been intelligently designed for successful landing on the lunar surface even if certain things fail. Many scenarios including engine failure, sensor failure, calculator failure and algorithm failure have been thoroughly examined and appropriate measures have been developed to neutralize the odds.
India’s debut mission to the Moon, Chandrayan-1 was launched in October, 2008 and stayed operational till August 2009. A decade later, India launched its second lunar mission, Chandrayan-2 but unfortunately, it sustained a hard landing after getting deviated from the planet trajectory.
Chandrayan-3 is now all set to carry the dream of billions of Indians to the Moon and if successful, will make India the fourth country, only next to America, China and former USSR to land on moon.
Countdown Starts…….
