Chandrayaan-3: India's Next Moon Mission

Chandrayan-3

India's space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), launched Chandrayaan-3 on July 14, 2023, at 2:35 PM from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The mission is a follow-up of Chandrayaan-2 of July 2019, which aimed to land a rover on the lunar South Pole. The subsequent failure of the Vikram lander led to the pursuit of another mission to demonstrate the landing capabilities needed for the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission proposed in partnership with Japan for 2024.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission consists of a lander and a rover similar to Chandrayaan-2 but does not have an orbiter. The larger aim of India’s Moon missions is to prepare a three-dimensional atlas of both near and far sides of the Moon and to conduct chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface with high spatial resolution.

The lander and rover will be equipped with scientific instruments to study the lunar surface and subsurface. The lander will carry a seismometer to study moonquakes and a thermal probe to study the temperature profile of the lunar surface. The rover will carry a laser-induced breakdown spectroscope (LIBS) to study the elemental composition of rocks and soil on the lunar surface.

The mission is expected to last for about 14 days. The lander will make a soft landing on the lunar surface at a predetermined site, and the rover will then be deployed from it. The rover will travel up to 500 meters on the lunar surface and transmit data back to Earth.

India's space program has been making steady progress over the years. With Chandrayaan-3, ISRO aims to demonstrate its capabilities in soft landing on the Moon and pave the way for future missions.

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