Chandrayaan-3 Successfully Launched, Moon Landing Due Aug 23

Chandrayaan-3 Rockets Towards Moon, Set for August 23 Landing

The GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle successfully blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota at the planned launch time.

The spacecraft's voyage from Earth to the moon is planned to take around a month, with the landing scheduled for August 23. After landing, it will continue to operate for one lunar day or around 14 days on Earth. Fourteen days on Earth are equal to one day on the Moon.

India will become the fourth nation, after the United States, China, and Russia, to land a spacecraft on the moon's surface with Chandrayaan-3, showcasing the nation's capabilities for gentle and safe landings.

The Chandrayaan-2 mission, which had issues during its soft landing on the lunar surface in 2019 and was eventually deemed to have failed its primary mission objectives, is being followed up by the ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 project.

Chandrayaan-3 will be sent into the lunar transfer trajectory following the orbit-raising activities. It has travelled more than 300,000 km and will arrive at the Moon in the coming weeks. The scientific equipment on board will investigate the Moon's surface and further our knowledge.

A lander, a rover, and a propulsion module are components of Chandrayaan-3. It is around 3,900 kilogrammes in weight.

A successful lunar mission by India would contribute to bettering life on Earth and enable it to explore the rest of the solar system and beyond. The Moon serves as a time capsule for Earth.

According to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the date July 14, 2023, will be inscribed in gold letters in the history of India's space industry. Chandrayaan-3 is India's third lunar expedition.

"This remarkable mission will carry the hopes and dreams of our nation," Prime Minister Modi had earlier tweeted.

"India has a long history in the space sector, thanks to our scientists." Because it verified the presence of water molecules on the moon, Chandrayaan-1 is regarded as a game changer among worldwide lunar missions. It was included in over 200 scholarly papers worldwide," Prime Minister Modi stated on Twitter.

"Until Chandrayaan-1, it was thought that the moon was a bone-dry, geologically inactive, and uninhabitable celestial body." "It is now viewed as a dynamic and geologically active body with the presence of water and subsurface ice," he continued, implying that it may be inhabited in the future.

Data from the Orbiter associated with Chandrayaan-2 identified the presence of chromium, manganese, and sodium for the first time using remote sensing. PM Modi claimed that this will also reveal additional information about the moon's magmatic development.

The first-ever worldwide map of lunar sodium, improved understanding of crater size distribution, unequivocal discovery of lunar surface water ice with the IIRS instrument, and more are among the significant scientific findings of Chandrayaan-2. Almost 50 publications have covered the expedition.

PM Modi sent his best wishes for the Chandrayaan-3 mission and asked people to learn more about this lunar expedition as well as India's achievements in space, science, and innovation. "It will make all of you very proud," he continued.

The development phase of Chandrayaan-3 began in January 2020, with the launch scheduled for 2021. However, the Covid-19 epidemic caused an unanticipated delay in the mission's development.

Former ISRO director K Sivan told ANI that the completion of mission Chandrayan-3 will raise morale for programmes such as Gaganyan, India's first human space mission.

Former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan, who has been key in the country's space sector innovation, said on Thursday that the Chandrayaan-3 mission will be a game-changer for India.

''Chandrayaan-3 will undoubtedly be a game changer for India, and I hope it succeeds. India will serve as an example to the rest of the globe. Let us wait and hope for the best," Nambi Narayanan told ANI.

"I'm assuming, and I hope it's a successful mission." Because whatever the issue was in Chandrayaan-2, we truly fixed it entirely. We learned from our errors," Narayanan, the recipient of India's third highest civilian distinction, the 'Padma Bhushan,' told ANI.