Chandrayaan 3 Mission: Countdown begins for the attempted touchdown of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the uncharted south pole region of the Moon on Wednesday. The Lander Module, comprising Vikram lander and Pragyan rover, is scheduled to touch down on the Moon’s south face at around 18:04 hours IST today.
Read all the latest updates on Chandrayaan-3 here
Here are 10 crucial things about ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 Moon Mission.
- After 40 days of wait, Chandrayaan-3 will make soft-landing on Moon’s south pole region on Wednesday. According to the ISRO, Chandrayaan 3’s lander, with a rover accommodated inside it, is expected to touch down on the surface of the Moon around 6.04 pm today. Chandrayaan-3, which means “moon vehicle” in Sanskrit — took off from a launchpad in Sriharikota on July 14.
Also read: Chandrayaan-3 makers haven’t received salaries in 17 months? Congress questions, BJP answers
2. ROLE OF LANDER AND ROVER: Vikram lander with a mass of 1749.86 kg including Rover Pragyan inside it, has a mission life of one Lunar day, which is equivalent to 14 Earth days.
3. Role of Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon: The Indian spacecraft will measure the near-surface plasma (ions and electrons) density of the Moon’s soil. The Chandrayaan-3 will also measure seismicity around the landing site of the Moon. The mission will help in discovering what kinds of chemicals are found on Moon’s soil. AN Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) will determine the elemental composition such as magnesium, Aluminium, Silicon, Potassium, Calcium, Titanium, and Iron) of lunar soil and rocks around the lunar landing site.
Also read: Chandrayaan-3 budget less than Interstellar: Elon Musk applauds India’s ‘low-cost’ Moon mission, says THIS
4. Records Chandrayaan-3 will create:
- -Through ISRO’s Chandrayaan 3 mission’s success, India will become the only country to land its spacecraft on the south pole region of the Moon.
- India will become the second country, along with China, to have an operating rover on the moon.
- India will become the fourth country to do a soft landing on Moon. Previously, China, the US, and the Soviet Union have achieved this milestone.
5. Companies behind the making of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft
- Larson and Tubro: It supplied critical booster segments, namely the head end segment, middle segment, and nozzle bucket flange, among other things.
- Mishra Dhatu Nigam:- The state-owned firm supplied critical materials such as cobalt base alloys, nickel base alloys, titanium alloys, and special steels for the launch vehicle of the Chandrayaan3 spacecraft
- BHEL: The government-owned firm supplied bi-metallic adaptors for Chandrayaan 3.
- Godrej Aerospace: It produced key engines and thrusters including L110 for the core stage and CE20 engine thrust chamber for the upper stage.
- Ankit Aerospace: The company claims to have supplied alloy steel, stainless steel fasteners, and specially-crafted titanium bolts
- Walchandnagar Industries: The firm helped with booster segments S200 used in the launch vehicle, flex nozzle control tankages, and S200 Flex nozzle hardware.
Also read: Chandrayaan-3 Moon Landing: Story of ISRO spacecraft’s Tamil connect and scientific payload
6. People behind the making of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft
ISRO Chairman S Somanath assumed leadership of ISRO in January 2022 and became a pivotal figure in India’s ambitious moon mission. Prior to this role, he had served as the director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre. He is overseeing missions like Chandrayaan-3, Aditya-L1 (a mission to study the Sun), and Gaganyaan (India’s first manned mission). Other significant people behind Chandrayaan-3 are: Project Director, P Veeramuthuvel; Unnikrishnan Nair, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre; M Sankaran, Director of U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC).
Other facts:
7. India found frozen water deposits in the darkest and coldest parts of the Moon’s polar regions for the first time using data from the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft in 2009. Chandrayaan-1, India’s first mission to the Moon, was launched on October 22, 2008, from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
8. A decade later, ISRO launched Chandrayaan-2 in 2019. However, the lander with a rover in its belly crash-landed on the lunar surface in the final lap, failing in its objective to touch down gently.
9. ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 mission cost is roughly ₹650 crore — far lower than those of other countries, and a testament to India’s frugal space engineering.
10. In 2014, India became the first Asian nation to put a craft into orbit around Mars and is slated to launch a three-day crewed mission into Earth orbit by next year.
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Updated: 23 Aug 2023, 02:46 PM IST
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