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ISRO chairman S.Somnath announced on Tuesday that the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft will make a soft landing on the Moon on August 23.
Somanath made the remarks during a discussion about Chandrayaan-3 held by the non-profit organization Disha Bharat. “Even if everything fails, if all the sensors fail, if nothing works, it (Vikram) will land.” That’s how we have designed it, assuming the propulsion system works properly. “We’ve also made sure that even if two of the engines (in Vikram) fail this time, it will still be able to land,” remarked the chairman during the occasion, according to news agency PTI.
On July 14, 2023, the Chandrayaan-3 mission launched aboard an LVM-3 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 2.35 PM IST. Following separation from the launch module, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft performed a series of maneuvers, each time climbing to a higher Earth orbit, before finally injecting itself into a “translunar” orbit on August 5.
The spacecraft then reached lunar orbit on Sunday, August 6. It first accomplished an orbit in which it was 164 kilometers from the Moon at its closest and 18,074 kilometers away at its farthest. It subsequently completed a maneuver that propelled it into a 170 by 4313-kilometer orbit. The mission has scheduled its next orbit maneuver today between 1 and 2 PM IST, followed by two more maneuvers on August 14 and August 15, bringing it to its final orbit of 100 kilometers by 100 kilometers.
After reaching that last orbit, the spacecraft will begin a deboost phase in which it will slow down before separating to settle on the lunar surface on August 23.
“We have also made sure that if two of the engines don’t work this time also, it will still be able to land. The chairman, speaking during the same event, explained that the entire design has been crafted to ensure it can manage numerous failures, as long as the algorithms function correctly.
Chandrayaan-3 will make India the fourth country in history to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, a feat it attempted failed with the Chandrayaan-2 mission. So far, only the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China have accomplished the same feat. Aside from Chandrayaan-2, private-led missions from Israel and Japan have also failed to land on the Moon.
Source:IE
