India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission will be launched at 2.35 pm today from Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota. If the mission succeeds then it will make India to be the fourth country to land on moon.
The mission will touch the moon on August 23 as per the expectations. The moon lander Vikram will be perched on a GSLV Mark 3 heavy lift launch vehicle — dubbed the Bahubali rocket. Renamed Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LM-3), the GSLV stands 43.5 meters tall – half of the height of Qutb Minar of Delhi.
In 2019, after the unsuccessful moon mission the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is expecting a successful mission this time alongside the hopes of the entire country.
In an interview ISRO Chief S Somnath said, “The main lacuna in the last Chandrayaa-2 mission was that there were off-nominal conditions that were initiated in the system. Everything was not nominal. And the craft was not able to handle the off-nominal condition for a safe landing”.
At first, India’s moon lander will land at the South Pole of the moon, where water molecules are present. It was known after India’s first moon mission in 2008.
After making a soft landing at moon, the lander will then release the rover Pragyan, which will conduct the scientific experiments by roaming the moon’s surface for a lunar day that is equal to 14 earth days.
The scientists want to analyse the soil present on the moon.
Following the learning from the failed last mission, the number of engines have been reduced to four from give on the lander and the software is also updated, said ISRO. Everything is well planned and tested, it added.
Mr Somnath told that this mission has been developed in a way that it has the capacity to land successfully even if some elements fail. Measures have been developed to counteract the failures like engine failure, calculation failure, sensor failure and alogirthm failure.
India launched its first moon mission i.e., Chandrayaan-1 in October 2008 which remained operational till August 2009.
While, the Chandrayaan-2 was launched in 2019 however, it got distracted from its path and was failed. The orbiter still revolves around the moon and sends data.
