While the Chandrayaan 3 lunar mission is progressing as expected towards a soft landing on the Moon later this month at a definite site, alternative plans have been put in place to give another chance at making a landing in case any technical difficulties arise, said Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) Chairman S Somanath in Delhi on August 7.
"Our efforts are, however, such that a nominal landing happens on the same day at the same site as has been planned," he told reporters in the national capital.
Somanath said that the spacecraft's orbit is being lowered around the Moon by decreasing its speed. While Chandrayaan 3 entered into a 170 km x 4,313 km orbit on August 6, it will be further lowered to a 100 km x 100 km orbit on August 9.
After that, the sensors and other paraphernalia of the spacecraft will again be tested before descending to an orbit of 100 km x 30 km and readying to land at a definite site on the surface of the South Pole region of the Moon on August 23 at 5.47 pm.
Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was successfully launched onboard LVM-3 on July 14 at 14:35 hours from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR. The spacecraft is currently undergoing a series of orbit manoeuvres with the objective of reaching the moon’s orbit and has two phases namely Earth Bound Phase and Lunar Bound Phase. The spacecraft is currently in the Earth Bound Phase.
Chandrayaan-3 components include various electronic and mechanical subsystems intended to ensure a safe and soft landing such as navigation sensors, propulsion systems, guidance & control among others. Additionally, there are mechanisms for the release of the rover, two-way communication-related antennas and other onboard electronics.
The approved cost of Chandrayaan-3 is Rs 250 crore. It is expected to take nearly 33 days from the launch date of July 14 to reach the orbit of the Moon.
The successful soft landing on the surface of the Moon would make India the fourth country in the world to achieve such a significant technological capability. The successful soft landing is envisaged to serve as forerunners for future landing missions and other technological progress in planetary exploration.
The soft landing of the previous lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, was planned to be carried out in multiple phases. Certain unexpected variations in the performances of the lander module eventually resulted in higher velocities at touchdown, which was beyond the designed capability of the lander’s legs, resulting in a hard landing.
Chandrayaan-3 has been made more robust by improvements in the lander to handle more dispersion, improvements in sensors, software and propulsion systems, full level redundancies in addition to exhaustive simulations and additional tests being conducted towards ensuring a higher degree of ruggedness in the lander.
Chandrayaan-3 in comparison to Chandrayaan-2 has been designed with the capabilities to autonomously handle a wide range of dispersion in order to achieve a soft and safe landing.
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