chandrayaan3
Chandrayaan-3
~by Rohit Mal
Chandrayaan-3 is the third mission in the Chandrayaan programme, a series of lunar-exploration missions developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).[11] The mission consists of a Vikram lunar lander and a Pragyan lunar rover was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on 14 July 2023. The spacecraft entered lunar orbit on 5 August, and India became the first country to touch down near the lunar south pole, at 69°S, the southernmost lunar landing [12] on 23 August 2023 at 18:04 IST (12:33 UTC), ISRO became the first agency to land on the south pole of the moon in its first attempt and overall the fourth space agency to successfully land on the Moon, after USSR, NASA and the CNSA .[13][note 1]
Chandrayaan-3 was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on 14 July 2023. The spacecraft entered lunar orbit on 5 August, and became the first lander to touch down near the lunar south pole[12] on 23 August at 18:03 IST (12:33 UTC), making India the fourth country to successfully land on the Moon, and at 69°S, the southernmost lunar landing, until IM-1 landed further southwards in Malapert A crater on 22 February 2024.[13][note 2] The lander was not built to withstand the cold temperatures of the lunar night, and sunset over the landing site ended the surface mission twelve days after landing.[17][18] The propulsion module, still operational, transited back to a high Earth orbit from lunar orbit on 22 November 2023 for continued scientific observations of Earth.[19] It operated until 22 August 2024.[4]
History
[edit]In 22 July 2019, ISRO launched Chandrayaan-2 on board a Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3) launch vehicle consisting of an orbiter, a lander and a rover.[20] The lander was scheduled to touch down on the lunar surface on 6 September 2019 to deploy the Pragyan rover. The lander lost contact with mission control, deviated from its intended trajectory while attempting to land near the lunar south pole, and crashed.[21][22]
The lunar south pole region holds particular interest for scientific exploration. Studies show large amounts of ice there. The ice could contain solid-state compounds that would normally melt under warmer conditions elsewhere on the Moon—compounds which could provide insight into lunar, Earth, and Solar System history. Mountains and craters create unpredictable lighting that protect the ice from melting, but they also make landing there a challenging undertaking for scientific probes. For future crewed missions and outposts, the ice could also be a source of oxygen, of drinking water as well as of fuel due to its hydrogen content.[23][24]
The European Space Tracking network (ESTRACK), operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), and Deep Space Network operated by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of NASA are supporting the mission.[25] Under a new cross-support arrangement, ESA tracking support could be provided for upcoming ISRO missions such as those of India's first human spaceflight programme, Gaganyaan, and the Aditya-L1 solar research mission. In return, future ESA missions will receive similar support from ISRO's own tracking stations.[26]
For the first time on the lunar surface, a laser beam from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was broadcast on 12 December 2023, and it was reflected back by a tiny NASA retroreflector on board the Vikram lander. The purpose of the experiment was to determine the retroreflector's surface location from the moon's orbit. The Chandrayaan-3 lander's Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) instrument began acting as a location marker close to the lunar south pole. Through multinational cooperation, the LRA was housed on the Vikram lander. On a hemispherical support framework, it consists of eight corner-cube retroreflectors. This array enables any orbiting spacecraft equipped with appropriate instruments to use lasers ranging from different directions. The 20 gram passive optical instrument is intended to survive for several decades on the lunar surface.[27]
Objectives
[edit]ISRO's mission objectives for the Chandrayaan-3 mission are:
- Engineering and implementing a lander to land safely and softly on the surface of the Moon.
- Observing and demonstrating the rover's driving capabilities on the Moon.
- Conducting and observing experiments on the materials available on the lunar surface to better understand the composition of the Moon.[28]
Spacecraft
[edit]Design
[edit]Chandrayaan-3 comprises three main components: a propulsion module, lander module, and rover.
Propulsion module
[edit]The propulsion module carried the lander and rover configuration to a 100-kilometre (62 mi) lunar orbit. It was a box-like structure with a large solar panel mounted on one side and a cylindrical mounting structure for the lander (the Intermodular Adapter Cone) on top.[29][30]
A few months after the conclusion of the lander portion of the mission, ISRO officials said that the propulsion module was equipped with two radioisotope heating units (RHU), designed and developed by BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre). RHUs keep spacecraft at their operational temperature using the decay of radioactive material, to generate electricity to power heaters. Chandrayaan-3 project director P Veeramuthuvel said ISRO may use nuclear resources to maintain instruments in future rovers. ISRO officials later said the RHUs could not be installed on Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander and Pragyan rover because it would have increased their mass. This reduced their maximum lifespan to 14 Earth days, or 1 lunar day.[31][32][33] On 4 December 2023, ISRO reported that the propulsion module was reinserted into an orbit around the Earth.[19] The primary objective of the reinsertion was to allow Earth observations by spectral and polarimetric instruments.[34] It operated until 22 August 2024.[4]
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