Launch of Chandrayaan 3

Chandrayaan-3, scheduled to be launched from Sriharikota this week, will make India the fourth country to land its Spacecraft on the surface of the Moon.

Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission of Chandrayaan-2 and is aimed to demonstrate India’s capability in soft landing and roving on the surface of the Moon or the Lunar surface. The complex mission profile required for the Spacecraft to enter the Moon’s orbit has been executed very precisely. After the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the surface of the Moon, the rover, which has six wheels, will come out and is expected to work for 14 days on the Moon. With the support of multiple cameras on the rover, we will be able to receive images. 

The primary objectives of Chandrayaan-3 mission are threefold,

• to demonstrate Safe and Soft Landing on Lunar Surface
• to demonstrate Rover roving on the moon and
• to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.

The first in the series of Chandrayaan, namely Chandrayaan-1, is credited for having discovered the presence of water on the surface of the Moon, which was a new revelation for the world and even the most premier Space agencies like the USA’s NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) were fascinated by this discovery and used the inputs for their further experiments. Chandrayyan-3 will be operating at the next level. The Spacecraft will use Launch Vehicle Mark-3 developed by ISRO for its launch. 

Chandrayaan-2 Mission could not yield the desired results because of a lapse just about 13 minutes after Spacecraft began its descent on September 6, 2019.

As a successor to Chandrayaan-2, Chandrayaan-3 has undergone a few changes to increase the robustness of the Lander. All these modifications have been subject to exhaustive ground tests and simulations through test beds.

The Lander and Rover module of Chandrayaan-3 is also configured with payloads that would provide data to the scientific community on various properties of Lunar Soil and rocks including its chemical and elemental composition.

For more information visit https://www.isro.gov.in/Chandrayaan3_New.html