This Chennai startup wants to give children exclusive view of Moon landing by Chandrayaan 3

Chandrayaan 3 will be attempting to make soft landing on the South Pole of the Moon on August 23

As Chandrayaan 3 gears up for its historic landing on the South Pole of the Moon later on August 23, space tech startups have gone all out to ensure that those they work with (in one case, school-going children) have a first-row view of the event.

Startups such as Chennai-based Space Kidz India, which works with children in developing satellite payloads, launch vehicle makers Skyroot Aerospace and Agnikul Cosmos are holding separate viewing sessions for their stakeholders.

Space Kidz India, for instance, which in February launched a satellite made by 750 children aboard ISRO's  SSLV-D2 rocket, is holding a viewing session for 70-80 school children at Ispahani Centre, mall-cum-working space in Nungambakkam, Chennai.

Also read: Rocket girls: Meet the students who worked on a satellite aboard ISRO’s SSLV-D2

What would set apart this viewing session is that Space Kidz India will be directly attempting to receive a direct signal from Chandrayaan 3 with the help of their large antennae installed on top of the Ispahani Centre.

"What ISRO is doing at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), we will be trying to do it ourselves. We have the parameters of Chandrayaan, the latitude, longitude and other details. So using those details we are trying to see if our antennae can get a direct signal," Dr Srimathy Kesan, founder of the startup told Moneycontrol.

Those who would be in the audience include children studying in a government school in Velachery, and many who are home-schooled.  "There are going to be children as young as 8-9 years old. This experience would create a good impact on them," Kesan said.

The children will be seated on the top floor, where TVs are going to be installed for them to view the landing attempt. They will be explained the various processes of the landing attempt as it happens. Separately, the startup is going to establish a command centre from where they will be attempting to directly track Chandrayaan's trajectory using the antennae.

Chennai's Agnikul Cosmos and Hyderabad's Skyroot Aerospace will also be holding separate viewing events for their employees at their workplaces.

"I can’t imagine an event more powerful to unite a team of people working in space tech. There is a certain bond that a group of people form when they are deeply connected to an event and the event is of historical significance, and we all know that it’s going to collectively raise an entire team’s adrenaline levels to a level that is not possible on most days," Srinath Ravichandra, CEO and co-founder of Agnikul Cosmos said.

Chandrayaan 3 Landing LIVE Updates

Speaking to Moneycontrol, Pawan Kumar Chandana, CEO and co-founder of Skyroot Aerospace said, "This is a momentous milestone for India as we may become the 4th country in the world to successfully soft land on the moon and 1st country to do so at such an unprecedented cost. This is symbol of our deep technology capability and efficiency inspiring young India, and inviting world class investments, partnerships and collaborations.

Chandrayaan 3 is India's third lunar mission, and it comes as a follow-up to the Chandrayaan-2 launch of 2019 which, despite providing valuable data and insights about Moon, failed in its main objective of making a landing on its surface.

The 2008 Chandrayaan-1 mission was immensely successful and it had documented evidences of water molecules on the Moon.

The mission consists of a lander and a rover both retrofitted with payloads that will land on the moon and conduct various experiments.