CHANDRAYAAN 3: “INDIA IS ON THE MOON” TIME TO CELEBRATE ITS ANNIVERSARY

The launch of Chandrayaan-3 took place on 14 July 2023, at 2:35 pm IST and injection of a 100 km circular polar orbit was completed successfully as part of phase one. Chandrayaan-3 was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, India. The lander and rover landed near the lunar south pole region on 23 August 2023. Chandrayaan-3 is the third lunar exploration mission by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). It is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. It consists of Lander and Rover configuration.

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HISTORY BEHIND THE MISSION

Chandrayaan-1, India's first mission to the Moon, was launched successfully on October 22, 2008 from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota. The satellite made more than 3400 orbits around the moon and the mission was concluded when communication with the spacecraft was lost on August 29, 2009. 25 September 2009, ISRO announced that the MIP, another instrument on board Chandrayaan-1, had discovered water on the Moon just before impact and had discovered it 3 months before NASA's M3. Chandrayaan-2 is the second lunar exploration mission developed by the (ISRO). It consists of a lunar orbiter, and formerly included the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover. The main scientific objective is to map and study the variations in lunar surface composition, as well as the location and abundance of lunar water. The objective of the Chandrayaan 2 mission was to achieve the ability to soft-land and operate a robotic rover on the lunar surface. Due to technical glitch there was partial failure of the Chandrayaan 2 and before soft landing, ISRO lost touch with the lander.

TECHNICAL INFORMATIONS

India Leaving a Mark on Moon Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the ISRO team for the successful Chandrayaan-3 Moon mission at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network in Bengaluru, and announced that the touchdown point of the Vikram lander would from now on be known as the Shiv Shakti point. He also declared that 23rd August, the day Vikram lander landed on Moon, will be called National Space Day.

Why the south pole?

The lunar south pole region holds particular interest for scientific exploration due to studies that show large amounts of ice there. Mountainous terrain and unpredictable lighting conditions not only protect the ice from melting but also make landing scientific probes there a challenging undertaking. This ice could contain solid-state compounds that would normally melt under warmer conditions elsewhere on the Moon, compounds which could provide insight into lunar, Earth, and Solar System history.

Detection of Sulphur

On 29 August, ISRO reported that the laser-induced breakdown spectroscope (LIBS) instrument onboard the Pragyan rover has "unambiguously" confirmed the presence of sulphur in the lunar surface near the south pole, through "first-ever in-situ measurements".

Apart from sulfur, the rover also detected other elements including aluminium (Al), calcium (Ca), iron (Fe), Chromium (Cr), titanium (Ti), manganese (Mn), silicon (Si), and oxygen (O). The agency said the search for hydrogen (H) is also underway.

Plasma measurement

On 31 August, ISRO released plasma density data from the RAMBHA Instrument aboard the Vikram lander. Initial assessments reported relatively low plasma densities above the lunar surface varying from 5 to 30 million electrons per m³. The evaluation pertains to early stages of the lunar day. The probe aims to explore the changes in the near-surface plasma environment throughout the duration of the lunar day.

Mission Objectives-

ISRO has set three main objectives for the Chandrayaan-3 mission, which include-

1. Getting a lander safe and soft landing on the surface of the Moon.
2. Observing and demonstrating the rover’s loitering capabilities on the Moon.
3. In-site scientific observation making scientific experiments on the chemical and natural elements, soil, water, etc.

available on the surface of the Moon to better understand and practice the composition of the Moon.

Mission Improvements-

• The Chandrayaan mission had failed in the final stages when Vikram Lander lost communication with the ground state.
• Chandrayaan 3 was designed to land successfully even if certain elements failed. It was the first to soft-land on the lunar south pole, a region that has never been explored before.

1. Propulsion module

The propulsion module carries the lander and rover configuration to a 100-kilometre (62 miles) lunar orbit. It is a box-like structure with a large solar panel mounted on one side and a cylindrical mounting structure for the lander (the Intermodular Adapter Cone) on top.

2. Lander

The Vikram lander is responsible for the soft landing on the Moon. It has four landing legs and four landing thrusters capable of producing 800 newtons of thrust each. It carries the rover and various scientific instruments to perform on-site analysis. One of the main reasons for Chandrayaan-2's landing failure was altitude increase during the camera coasting phase. This was removed by allowing the lander to control attitude and thrust during all phases of

descent. The impact legs have been made stronger and instrumentation redundancy has been improved. The target was more precise 16 km2 (6.2 sq miles) landing region based on images previously provided by the Orbiter High-Resolution Camera (OHRC) onboard Chandrayaan-2's orbiter. ISRO improved the structural rigidity, increased polling in instruments, increased data frequency and transmission, and added additional multiple contingency systems to improve lander survivability in the event of failure during descent and landing.

3. Rover

The Pragyan rover is a six-wheeled vehicle with a mass of 26 kilograms (57 pounds). It is 917 mm (3.009 ft) x 750mm (2.46 ft) x 397 mm (1.302 ft) in size. The rover is expected to take multiple measurements to support research into the composition of the lunar surface, the presence of water ice in the lunar soil, the history of lunar impacts, and the evolution of the Moon's atmosphere.

Chandrayaan-3 Soars to New Heights: Double Award Win!

Chandrayaan-3's historic landing near the Moon's South Pole has earned it two prestigious awards. The International Astronautical Federation (IAF) honored the mission with the World Space Award, placing India among the few nations capable of a lunar soft landing. This award will be presented on October 14, 2024, at the 75th International Astronautical Congress in Milan. Additionally, the mission received the John L. 'Jack' Swigert Jr. Award for Space Exploration on April 8, 2024, at the Space Symposium in Colorado, recognizing its significant contributions to advancing space exploration.

SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS INVOLVED

• ISRO Chairperson: S. Somanath
• Mission Director: S. Mohanakumar
• Associate Mission Director: G. Narayanan
• Project Director: P. Veeramuthuvel
• Deputy Project Director: Kalpana Kalahasti
• Vehicle Director: Biju C. Thomas

References

• https://www.business-standard.com
• timesofindia.com
• iafastro.org
• wgbh.org