Chandrayaan-3- Know all and Everything- GKGS-2023 -

Chandrayaan-3- Know all and Everything– GKGS-2023

For Prelims: Chandrayaan-3, Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth, Satish Dhawan Space Center, Elliptic Parking Orbit, LVM3 M4, Flybys, Orbiters, Impact Missions, NASA’s Artemis Program

For Mains: Space Technology, Chandrayaan 3 Mission and its Significance

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is attempting to make a successful soft landing on the moon with the launch of Chandrayaan-3.

India wants to join China, the United States, and Russia as the fourth nation in the world to accomplish this accomplishment.

What is Chandrayaan-3 Mission?

India’s third lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3, marks the country’s second attempt at a gentle lunar landing.
On July 14, 2023, at 2:35 p.m., the mission departed from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota.
With the aim of researching and showcasing new technology necessary for interplanetary missions, it comprises of an indigenous Lander module (LM), Propulsion module (PM), and Rover.

Objectives of Chandrayaan-3

To show Safe and Soft Landing on the Surface of the Moon
To showcase roaming lunar rover technology
to carry out in-situ scientific research.

Features

The Chandrayaan-3 mission will use the identical lander (Vikram) and rover (Pragyan) payloads as the Chandrayaan-2 mission.
The lander’s research packages are designed to investigate a variety of elements of the lunar environment. As part of these payloads, the moon’s quakes, temperature characteristics, changes in the plasma near the surface, and the precise measurement of their separation from Earth are all being studied.

A brand-new experiment dubbed Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) is part of Chandrayaan-3’s propulsion module.
By examining reflected light, SHAPE seeks to find smaller planets with potential for habitability.

Improvements in Chandrayaan-3

With the freedom to land safely inside a wider permitted region, the landing area has been enlarged.
In order to go farther to the landing site or other areas, the lander has been given extra fuel.
In contrast to Chandrayaan-2, which only had two sides with solar panels, Chandrayaan-3 had panels on all four sides.
The landing site was selected using high-resolution photos from the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft, and physical changes were made to increase stability and sturdiness.
Chandrayaan-3 is equipped with additional navigational and guiding tools that allow it to continually track the Lander’s speed and make any required adjustments.
In order to determine the speed of the Lander, a device called the Laser Doppler Velocimeter will fire laser beams onto the lunar surface.

Launch and Timeline

Chandrayaan-3 was successfully launched using the LVM3 M4 rocket.
The LVM-3 spacecraft disengaged from the rocket 16 minutes after launch. It started an EPO, or elliptic parking orbit.
According to estimates, Chandrayaan-3 will travel for around 42 days, and its lunar dawn touchdown is set for August 23, 2023.
As they run on solar power, the lander and rover will have a mission life of one lunar day (about 14 days on Earth).
Near the lunar south pole is where Chandrayaan-3 will touch down.

Importance of Landing Near the Lunar South Pole

Due to its favourable geography and operational circumstances, the equatorial region has historically been the main objective of spacecraft missions to the Moon.
In contrast to the equatorial zone, the lunar south pole offers a very diverse and more difficult landscape.
In certain polar locations, where sunlight is limited, there are zones that are always dark and have temperatures as low as -230 degrees Celsius.
Extreme cold and a lack of sunshine make it difficult for instruments to operate and be sustained.

Although the lunar south pole presents difficult conditions for people, it also makes them possible archives of important knowledge about the early Solar System.
Exploring this area is essential because it may influence future deep space missions.

Other Chandrayaan Missions

Chandrayaan-1:

In 2008, Chandrayaan-1, the first of India’s lunar exploration missions, was launched. Its objectives included conducting mineralogical mapping and building a three-dimensional atlas of the moon.
Launch Vehicle: C11 of the PSLV.
Chandrayaan-1 produced important findings, such as the finding of hydroxyl and water on the lunar surface.

Chandrayaan-2

The Orbiter, Lander, and Rover on Chandrayaan-2 were designed to investigate the lunar south pole.
GSLV MkIII-M1 is the launch vehicle.
Despite the fact that the lander and rover crashed on the moon’s surface, the orbiter was able to gather data and discover water signals at all latitudes.

Types of Moon Missions:

1- Flybys:

In these trips, a spacecraft passes close to the moon without joining its orbit, enabling distant observations.
Examples include the USSR’s Luna 3 and USSR’s Pioneer 3 and 4.

2- Orbiters:

These spacecraft enter lunar orbit to carry out in-depth investigations of the moon’s atmosphere and surface. 46 other missions, including Chandrayaan-1, have made use of orbiters.

3- Impact Missions:

Extending orbiter missions, impact missions feature sensors falling erratically on the moon’s surface, gathering data before being destroyed.
This strategy was used by Chandrayaan-1’s Moon Impact Probe (MIP).

4- Landers:

These missions try to make a gentle landing on the moon’s surface so they may observe it up close.
In 1966, the USSR’s Luna 9 mission made the first successful landing on the moon.

5- Rovers:

Specialised payloads that separate from landers and move on the lunar surface on their own.
They collect useful information and get around the drawbacks of fixed landers. Pragyan was the name of Chandrayaan-2’s rover; Chandrayaan-3 will also have this name.

6- Human Missions

These missions entail setting foot on the moon’s surface with astronauts.
Having made six successful landings between 1969 and 1972, only NASA has accomplished this milestone.
The return of humans to the moon will be marked by NASA’s Artemis III, scheduled for 2025.

Team behind India’s Moon mission

The last mission has been finished and the Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 has successfully landed on the Moon’s surface. On August 23, 2023, at 6:04 p.m., as planned, the touch down occurred.

The last mission has been finished and the Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 has successfully landed on the Moon’s surface. On August 23, 2023, at 6:04 p.m., as planned, the touch down occurred. With Chandrayaan-3’s successful lunar touchdown, India has become the fourth country to perfect the technology of soft lunar landings, following the United States, China, and the former Soviet Union.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission included over 54 female engineers and scientists. They are “associate and deputy project directors and project managers of various systems,” according to an ISRO spokesperson.

1- S Somanath, ISRO Chairman

ISRO director S. Somanath is the brains behind India’s planned Moon mission. Gaganyaan and Sun-Mission Aditya-L1 were two more ISRO missions that were accelerated thanks to Somanath. Before leading India’s space agency, Somanath previously served as the director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, the main ISRO development centres for rocket technology.

P Veeramuthuvel, Chandrayaan-3 project director

P Veeramuthuvel is the project director for India’s most recent lunar touch-down mission. He assumed leadership of the mission in 2019. Before the Moon mission began, Veeramuthuvel was working as a deputy director at the ISRO headquarters’ Space Infrastructure Programme Office. His technical abilities are well-known.

Veeramuthuvel was in charge of talks with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the Chandrayaan-2 project, which was also crucial to the mission’s success. Veeramuthuvel is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras (IIT-M) and a native of Villupuram in the Tamil Nadu state.

Mohana Kumar, Mission director

The mission director for Chandrayaan-3 is S Mohana Kumar, a distinguished scientist from the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. As the mission’s director, Kumar oversaw the LVM3-M3 mission’s successful commercial launch of the One Web India 2 satellites.

S Unnikrishnan Nair, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) director

The director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), located near Thumba in the Thiruvananthapuram region of Kerala, is S. Unnikrishnan Nair. He and his crew are in charge of the vital mission’s essential tasks. The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) also created the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark-III rocket, which was later renamed Launch Vehicle Mark-III.

M Sankaran, U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) director

M. Sankaran, the director of the U R Rao Satellite Centre, is in charge of organising the satellite community to satisfy the needs of the country in terms of communication, navigation, remote sensing, meteorology, and extraterrestrial exploration. He became leadership of the primary centre in India responsible for the design, development, and realisation of all ISRO satellites in June 2021.

A Rajarajan, Launch Authorisation Board (LAB) chief

Composites are a speciality of A Rajarajan, a scientist and the director of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR (SDSC SHAR), Sriharikota. He was in charge of seeing that the launch complex infrastructure and solid motor manufacture came to fruition in order to fulfil the growing demand for launches from ISRO, including launches for SSLV and the Human Space Programme (Gaganyaan). The launch is approved by the Launch Authorisation Board (LAB).

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