Chandrayaan 3: Objectives, Landing On The South Pole

India’s Moon mission Chandrayaan 3 scripted history by successfully landing on the lunar surface.

Key Points on Chandrayaan 3

• With the Lander accomplishing a ‘soft landing’ on the Moon’s south pole, India becomes the only country to have ever done so.
• The successful moon mission has made India the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the lunar surface after the US, China, and the erstwhile Soviet Union.
• The Vikram lander began its descent toward the moon surface at a velocity of 1.68 km per second.
• It then slowed down before beginning a powered vertical descent to the surface of the moon.

Chandrayaan 3

• Chandrayaan 3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.
• It consists of Lander and Rover configuration.
• ISRO launched the Mission by using an LVM3 vehicle on 14th July 2023 from Sriharikota
• Chandrayaan-3 consists of an indigenous Lander module (LM), Propulsion module (PM) and a Rover with an objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for Inter planetary missions.
• The Lander will have the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the Rover which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility.
• The main function of PM is to carry the LM from launch vehicle injection till final lunar 100 km circular polar orbit and separate the LM from PM.
• Apart from this, the Propulsion Module also has one scientific payload as a value addition which will be operated post separation of Lander Module.

Objectives Of Chandrayaan 3

The objectives of the Chandrayaan 3 mission are:

Technologies

Advanced technologies are present in Lander such as:

 Soft Landing and South Pole

• Soft landing simply means landing at a gentle, controlled speed to not sustain damage to a spacecraft.
• Doing so showcases a spacecraft’s technical capabilities. The landing site is near the south pole of the moon at 70 degrees latitude.
• All of the previous spacecraft to have landed on the Moon have landed in the region near the Moon’s equator, firstly because it is easier and safer here.
• The terrain and temperature are more conducive for a long and sustained operation of instruments. Sunlight is also present, offering a regular supply of energy to solar-powered instruments.
• The polar regions of the Moon, however, are different. Many parts lie in a completely dark region without sunlight, and temperatures can go below 230 degrees Celsius.
• This creates difficulty in the operation of instruments. In addition, there are large craters all over the place.
• As a result, the polar regions of the Moon have remained unexplored. The extremely cold temperatures could mean that anything trapped in the region would remain frozen in time, without undergoing much change.
• The rocks and soil in Moon’s north and south poles could therefore provide clues to the early Solar System.
• Notably, Chandrayaan-2 also planned to land in this region in 2019, but it was not able to accomplish a soft landing and lost contact after it hit the surface.

What Will Happen After Chandrayaan 3’s Successful Landing On The Moon?

• Spacecraft are often carrying certain instruments and experiments with them (called payloads) that observe and record what is happening in Space.
• This information is then relayed to Earth for scientists to analyse and study.
• The six payloads on the Vikram lander and rover Pragyan remain the same as the previous mission.
• There will be four scientific payloads on the lander and there are two payloads on the Rover

Payloads

The objectives of scientific payloads planned on Chandrayaan 3 Lander Module and Rover are provided below:

Chandrayaan 2 Failure

Changes in Chandrayaan 3 

“Failure-based design” instead of the “Success-based design”:

• The failure-based design means the calculation and programming of all the probable scenarios that can go wrong.
• These include failure of electronics, engine failure, unable to reach the landing spot, sensor failure, algorithm failure, velocity higher than required, etc.
• Thus, if everything, including sensors, fails, the Vikram will still make the landing.

Increase in the landing area:

• The target area of Chandrayaan-3 is 4km x 2.4km area instead of 500m x 500m targeted by Chandrayaan-2.

More fuel to Lander:

• It will facilitate the Lander to travel longer distances to the landing site and, if needed, to the alternate landing site.

Help from Chandrayaan-2 orbiter:

• The Chandrayaan-3 mission does not carry an orbiter; it will use high-resolution images from the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter.

More robust integrated craft:

• The weight of the payload of Chandrayaan-3 has been kept more than the Chandrayaan-2, with the Lander having most of the extra weight.
• The number of thrusters has decreased from five to four without the central thruster.
• The legs are now sturdier to ensure that they can land even at a higher velocity.
• Use of additional solar panels to ensure power generation after a soft landing regardless of the weather on the Moon.

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