Facts you must know about Chandrayan-3

Facts you must know about Chandrayan-3

Chandrayaan-3 has been launched at 2:35 P.M. on 14th July, 2023 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh carries by ISRO’s largest and most powerful rocket, the Launch Vehicle Mark III.

Interesting Facts about the Chandrayaan-3:

1. The Chandrayaan programme was conceived by the Government of India and formally announced by former Prime Minister, the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee on August 15, 2003.

2. Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 which aims at soft landing at Moon’s south pole.

3. Chandrayaan-3 is also known as the LVM3-M4 mission because it is the fourth operational mission of LVM3.

4. It consists of a lander and a Rover which has been launched into the space by a rocket called LVM3 from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota.

5. The spacecraft is expected to touch down on the moon on 23 August after a voyage that will last more than 40 days. The craft is set to land on the Moon’s South Pole, where Chandrayaan-1 discovered the molecules of water and shocked the world by its major success.

6. Chandrayaan-3 consists of a Lander Module (LM) Lander Vikram, which is named after Vikram Sarabhai, the Rover Pragyan and a Propulsion Module (PM). The LM will facilitate a soft lunar landing, while the PM will handle propulsion and control. The rover’s role will be to explore the lunar surface and gather scientific data.

7. The launcher used to support the moon lander Vikram is GSLV also known as Launch Vehicle Mark III. The height of this launcher is about 5 metres.

8. The weight of the Vikram Lander has been increased by 280kg from its previous version and it also carries more fuel to stay on it’s intended path to the Moon’s surface.

9. The craft collectively weighs 3,900 kg in which the weight of the propulsion is 2148 kg and the weight of lander and Rover together is 1752 kg. This total weight is close to the maximum capacity of the GSLV MK III which is India’s strongest rocket.

10. As Chandrayaan-3 safely lands on the moon, the Pragyan Rover will be deployed to explore. The Rover will be released from Lander using a ramp. This six-wheeled rover used in spacecraft is powered by solar energy and carries two spectrometers to study the composition of the moon’s surface. It will move around the landing area for about 14 Earth Days which is equivalent to one lunar day.

11. Chandrayaan-3 has three phases: the Earth-Centric Phase, the lunar-transfer phase and the Moon-Centric Phase.

The Earth Centric: Phase involves the pre-launch phase and the Earth bound manoeuvre phase which will help the spacecraft to change its directions.

The Lunar-Transfer: Phase involves the transfer trajectory phase which will help it to choose the path that will lead it towards the lunar orbit.

The Moon-Centric: Phase involves all steps from lunar orbit insertion to landing.

12. Vikram Lander used in Chandrayaan-3 is equipped with four scientific instruments.

The first one is seismometer designed to detect moonquakes,

The second one studies how heat moves through the lunar surface,

The third aims at understanding the plasma environment around the moon and

The fourth one is retro-reflector which helps to understand the gravitational interaction between the moon and the planets.

13. The lander will touch down on the moon’s surface with a horizontal velocity of less than 5 metre per second, a vertical velocity of less than two metre per second and a slope less than 120 degrees.

14. The rover has a mass of 26 kilograms, a mission life of one lunar day, and a power generation capacity of 50 Watts.

15. According to scientists, after the lift-off at 2.35 pm on Friday, around 16 minutes after lift-off, the propulsion module is expected to get separated from the rocket and would orbit the earth for about 5–6 times in an elliptical cycle with 170 km closest and 36,500 km farthest from earth moving towards the lunar orbit.

16. The propulsion module along with the lander, after gaining speed would proceed for an over a month-long journey towards reaching the orbit of the moon until it goes 100 km above the lunar surface.

17. After reaching the desired position, the lander module would begin its descent for a soft landing on the south pole region of the moon and this action is expected to take place on August 23 or 24, ISRO had earlier noted.

18. The mission will last 14 days when the sun will shine on Moon. During this period, the six payloads will experiment on surface plasma, thermal properties, seismic activity, chemical composition and elements in the surface and atmosphere around Moon

19. The landing area of the mission is increased to 4km by 2.5km

20. The rover is fitted inside the lander, and together, they are called the lander module. The propulsion module will carry the lander module to a 100-kilometre circular lunar orbit. After this, the propulsion module and the lander module will separate.

21. The propulsion module is equipped with a payload called Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (SHAPE). The function of SHAPE is to study the spectral and polarimetric measurements of Earth from lunar orbit. This means that SHAPE will analyse the spectro-polarimetric signatures of Earth.

22. The lunar orbit insertion will occur in an elliptical orbit whose size is 170 × 36,500 square kilometres. After this, Chandrayaan-3 will be separated from the launch vehicle. The propulsion module will carry the lander module to a lunar circular orbit whose size is 100 × 100 square kilometres.

The mission life of the propulsion module is three to six months. It weighs 2,148 kilograms, and has a power generation capacity of 758 Watts.

23. The lander’s payloads are Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE), Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA), Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) Rover, and Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA).

ChasTE will carry out measurements of thermal properties such as thermal conductivity and temperature of elements on the lunar surface near the south pole;

ILSA will measure the seismicity around the landing site and describe the structure of the lunar crust and mantle; and

RAMBHA will study the gas and plasma environment.

24. The lander module has a mass of 1,752 kilograms, and a mission life of one lunar day, which is equivalent to 14 Earth days. It has a power generation capacity of 738 Watts.

25. The rover is equipped with two payloads, which are the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS), and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS).

APXS will help determine the elemental composition of the lunar soil and rocks around the landing site. The elements to be studied include magnesium, aluminium, silicon, potassium, calcium, titanium and iron.

LIBS will conduct qualitative and quantitative elemental analysis in order to infer the chemical and mineralogical composition of the lunar surface.

26. LVM3-M4 has a height of 43.5 metres, a lift-off mass of 642 tonnes, two strap-on motors, a payload fairing, and two stages. The two stages are: L110 and C25. The L110 stage will carry a liquid fuel, and the C25 stage will carry a cryogenic fuel. The strap-on motors carry solid fuel, and are solid rocket boosters.

27. The lander will touch down on the lunar surface with a horizontal velocity of less than 0.5 metre per second, a vertical velocity of less than two metres per second, and a slope less than 120 degrees.

28. A successful landing on the lunar surface would make India only the fourth country to achieve the feat after the United States, China, and the former Soviet Union.

29. India will be the first nation in the world to land on the Moon’s South Pole.

30. A total number of 38 soft landing attempts have been made by space agencies in the world to soft-land on the moon, so far. The success rate is 52 percent.