The Vikram lander module of the critical Moon mission, which launched from Earth on July 14, successfully completed a deboosting maneuver on Friday. The project is now preparing for its much-anticipated soft landing attempt on August 23.
The second deboosting process will be carried out on August 20, gradually lowering the module into the lunar orbit from where the soft landing attempt will be attempted. If this maneuver is successful, the Vikram Lander and Pragyan rover may begin their mission, which will last one lunar day, or 14 days on Earth.
S Somanath, Director of ISRO, on the dependability of Indian lunar missions
According to ISRO chairman S Somanath, the lander of India’s third lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3, Vikram, would be able to make a soft touchdown on the Moon’s surface on August 23 even if all of its sensors and two of its engines fail.
Why is the Moon’s south pole such a sought-after location?
Scientists believe that the Moon’s south pole has huge amounts of ice, which might be useful for extracting fuel, oxygen, and potentially drinking water.
Which spacecraft will land on the moon first, India’s Chandrayaan-3 or Russia’s Luna 25?
According to Roscosmos, the Luna 25 spacecraft would take around five days to reach the Moon after launching on August 11. It will then spend five to seven days in lunar orbit before landing in one of three polar regions.
The Russian mission may land on the moon before or at the same time as the Indian mission.
Because the two planes utilize different landing spots, Roscosmos projected no interference. There is no threat of collision or interference, according to the Russian Space Agency. There is enough space on the moon for everyone.
ISRO Chairperson S Somanath says Chandrayaan-3’s orientation is crucial for a safe landing. He believes that the landing process’s initial velocity is near to 1.68 kilometers per second, despite this speed being horizontal to the moon. Because it is 90 degrees inclined at this position, the Chandrayaan-3 must become vertical. According to the ISRO chief, the “trick” we must apply in this circumstance is the ability to transfer the spacecraft from a horizontal to a vertical position.
What additional missions are presently underway on the moon after the August 23 landing of Chandrayaan-3?
ISRO, or the Indian Space Research Organization, announced that six lunar orbiters will be operational in July 2023.
• As part of the Artemis mission, NASA’s THEMIS probes, now known as Artemis P1 and Artemis P2, continue in low-inclination, eccentric orbits.
The orbit of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is roughly polar and fairly elliptical.
Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) and ISRO Chandrayaan-2 are in polar orbits at 100 km.
• On a 9:2 resonant southern L2 NRHO trajectory, NASA’s Capstone travels over the lunar North and South poles at altitudes of 1500-1600 km and 70,000-70,000 km, respectively.
• The Ouna spacecraft, launched as part of India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008, and Japan’s Kaguya/SELENE mission in 2009, are no longer functioning.
• All of the other orbiters were either deliberately pushed out of lunar orbit or landed or collided with the moon’s surface due to their inability to land softly. China’s Queqiao, a data relay satellite for the Chang’e 4 mission, shifted to a halo orbit at the Earth-Moon L2 point after being launched in 2018.
On Sunday, the Vikram lander will be decommissioned.
On August 20, the Lander Module, which comprises the lander (Vikram) and the rover (Pragyan), will undergo its second deboosting operation to lower it to an orbit that gets it much closer to the Moon’s surface. A soft landing on the moon’s south pole is planned for August 23.
the current status of India’s moon mission
The present position of Chandrayaan 3
ISRO announced on Friday that the Vikram Lander Module of Chandrayaan 3 has successfully completed a “deboosting” operation that reduced its orbit to 113 km x 157 km.
The next mission in Chandrayaan 3’s challenges
“The ability to transition from a horizontal to a vertical direction is critical.”Somanath was a speaker at the charity group Disha Bharat’s presentation, Chandrayaan-3: Bharat’s Pride Space Mission. “We only had the problem here the last time,” he commented.
Chandrayaan-3 will be manipulated into a vertical position through a series of steps to ensure a safe lunar landing. This procedure is critical because ISRO previously failed to correctly land its lander on the Moon’s surface during the Chandrayaan-2 mission.
According to the ISRO director, the challenge also involves minimizing fuel use, maintaining correct distance computations, and ensuring that all algorithms are performing as intended.
