Chandrayaan-3 uses modified Vikram moon lander for lunar descent: All you need to know

Pragyan rover mounted on the ramp projecting from out of the sides of Vikram lander (Image: ISRO)

What comes as a big step for India's moon mission, Lander Module of Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft comprising the lander and rover, successfully separated from the Propulsion Module on August 17, said ISRO. In the next step Lander Module will descend to a slightly lower orbit around the Moon on August 18.

''Thanks for the ride, mate! said the Lander Module (LM). LM is successfully separated from the Propulsion Module (PM). LM is set to descend to a slightly lower orbit upon a deboosting planned for tomorrow around 1600 Hrs., IST,'' ISRO said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

As the mission progressed, a series of maneuvers are being conducted by ISRO to gradually reduce Chandrayaan-3's orbit and position it over the lunar poles.

Vikram moon lander with slight modification in leg strength will help payloads from Chandrayaan-3 to land on Moon on August 23, after the launch on July 14 from Sriharikota space station.

The lander ensured soft landing of the rover and other payloads about 70 degrees from the Moon’s south pole. The lander and propulsion module will detach from the spacecraft when it reaches an orbit 100 x 100 km away from the surface.

Vikram lander features a new instrument to precisely calculate the spacecraft's descent speed, stronger legs to handle a higher landing speed, and a wider landing site of 4km by 2.5km.

Once the lander and propulsion module are separated from the spacecraft, the latter will steer the ensemble from launch vehicle injection orbit to lander separation.

In Pics: All you need to know about India's Chandrayaan-3 mission

The technologies used in this process will help in other inter-planetary missions. India, in June 2023, signed Artemis Accords with NASA which will determine the parameters of human space flight missions. This Chandrayan 3 mission would turn out beneficial for future such missions.

Marc Norman, a planetary geochemist at the Australian National University in Canberra, told Nature's T.V. Padma, “The south pole region has very different geology from the region around the [US] Apollo missions, so Chandrayaan-3 will provide a close-up view of an entirely new region of the moon.”

Also read: Chandrayaan-3: 10 facts about July 14 launch mission

Apart from assistance in smooth landing and propelling, the Vikram lander and the propulsion module will also carry out scientific experiments.

The lander has a set of three payloads RAMBHA-LP, ChaSTE and ILSA that probe the lunar surface for information like the density of ions and electrons, thermal properties and seismic activity.

The propulsion Module will carry SHAPE, a spectro-polarimetric experiment that will study signatures of Earth in near-infrared wavelengths.