India is bidding to become only the fourth country to execute a controlled landing on the moon with the successful launch on 14th July 2023 of its Chandrayaan-3 mission. Chandrayaan, which means “moon vehicle” in Sanskrit, blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center at Sriharikota in southern Andhra Pradesh state at just after 2:30 p.m. local time (5 a.m. ET). Crowds gathered at the space center to watch the history-making launch and more than 1 million people tuned in to watch on YouTube. The Indian Space Research Organization confirmed on Twitter later Friday that Chandrayaan-3 is in “precise orbit” and has “begun its journey to the moon. “It added that the health of the spacecraft is “normal.”
The Chandrayaan programme (romanized: Candrayâna, pronunciation) also known as the Indian Lunar Exploration Programme is an ongoing series of outer space missions by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the exploration of the Moon. The programme incorporates lunar orbiter, impactor, soft lander and rover spacecraft. There have been three missions so far with a total of two orbiters, landers and rovers each. While the two orbiters were successful, the first lander and rover which were part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission, crashed on the surface. The current composite of the Chandrayaan-3 mission is currently in the lunar orbit and will land on 23 August. The Chandrayaan (Indian Lunar Exploration Programme) programme is a multiple mission programme. As of September 2019, one orbiter with an impactor probe has been sent to the Moon, using ISRO’s workhorse PSLV rocket. The second spacecraft consisting of orbiter, soft lander and rover was launched on 22 July 2019, by using a LVM3 rocket. In a podcast from AT, VSSC director S. Somanath stated that there will be a Chandrayaan-3 and more follow up missions in Chandrayaan Program. The Chandrayaan-3 mission was launched on 14 July 2023 using LVM-3 and it is expected to reach Moon’s surface in August.
The mission was a major boost to India’s space program. The idea of an Indian scientific mission to the Moon was first mooted in 1999 during a meeting of the Indian Academy of Sciences. The Astronautical Society of India carried forward the idea in 2000. Soon after, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) set up the National Lunar Mission Task Force which concluded that ISRO has the technical expertise to carry out an Indian mission to the Moon. In April 2003 over 100 eminent Indian scientists in the fields of planetary and space sciences, Earth sciences, physics, chemistry, astronomy, astrophysics and engineering and communication sciences discussed and approved the Task Force recommendation to launch an Indian probe to the Moon. Six months later, in November, the Indian government gave the nod for the mission.
The first phase includes the launch of the first lunar orbit. Chandrayaan-1, launched on 22 October 2008 aboard a PSLV-XL rocket, was a big success for ISRO as the Moon Impact Probe, a payload on board the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, discovered water on the Moon. Apart from detecting water the Chandrayaan-1 mission performed several other tasks such as mapping and atmospheric profiling of the Moon. On 18 September 2008, the First Manmohan Singh Cabinet approved the mission. Although ISRO finalised the payload for Chandrayaan-2 per schedule the mission was postponed in January 2013 and rescheduled to 2016 because Russia was unable to develop the lander on time. Roscosmos later withdrew in wake of the failure of the Fobos Grunt mission to Mars, since the technical aspects connected with the Fobos-Grunt mission were also used in the lunar projects, which needed to be reviewed. When Russia cited its inability to provide the lander even by 2015, India decided to develop the lunar mission independently and unused orbiter hardware was repurposed to be used for Mars Orbitor Mission. Chandrayaan-2 was launched on 22 July 2019 aboard a LVM3 rocket. The spacecraft was successfully put into lunar orbit on August 20, 2019 but the lander was lost while attempting to land on 6 September 2019. The orbiter is operational, collecting scientific data, and is expected to function for 7.5 years.
In November 2019, ISRO officials stated that a new lunar lander mission was being studied for launch in November 2020. This new proposal is called Chandrayaan-3 and it would be a re-attempt to demonstrate the landing capabilities needed for the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission proposed in partnership with Japan for 2025. This spacecraft configuration would not include launching an orbiter and would have a lander, rover, and a propulsion modulewith mission costing Rs. 250 crore with additional launch costs of Rs. 365 crore for LVM3. This third mission would land in the same area as the second one. Chandrayaan-3 was launched on 14 July 2023 at 9:05:17 UTC. The primary goals of the Chandrayaan-3 mission encompass three key aspects. Firstly, it aims to showcase a successful and controlled touchdown on the lunar surface. Secondly, it intends to demonstrate the mobility of a rover on the Moon’s terrain. Lastly, it seeks to carry out scientific experiments directly on the lunar surface. The next mission will be the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission or Chandrayaan-4, suggested to be launched in a time frame of 2026-28. India is collaborating with Japan in this mission but the mission is not yet defined. It will be a lander-rover mission near lunar pole to perform on site sampling and analysis of collected lunar materials and demonstrate lunar night survival technologies.
In response, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Chandrayaan-3 scripts a new chapter in India’s space odyssey. It soars high, elevating the dreams and ambitions of a every Indian. This momentous achievement is a testament to our scientists’ relentless dedication. I salute their spirit and ingenuity! “The craft is expected to land on the moon on August 23.It’s India’s second attempt at a soft landing, after its previous effort with the Chandrayaan-2 in 2019 failed. Its first lunar probe, the Chandrayaan-1, orbited the moon and was then deliberately crash-landed onto the lunar surface in 2008. Developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Chandrayaan-3 is comprised of a lander, propulsion module and rover. Its aim is to safely land on the lunar surface, collect data and conduct a series of scientific experiments to learn more about the moon’s composition. Only three other countries have achieved the complicated feat of soft-landing a spacecraft on the moon’s surface – the United States, Russia and China.
Indian engineers have been working on the launch for years. They are aiming to land Chandrayaan-3 near the challenging terrain of the moon’s unexplored South Pole. India’s maiden lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, discovered water molecules on the moon’s surface. Eleven years later, the Chandrayaan-2 successfully entered lunar orbit but its rover crash-landed on the moon’s surface. It too was supposed to explore the moon’s South Pole. At the time, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the engineers behind the mission despite the failure, promising to keep working on India’s space program and ambitions. Just before Friday’s launch, Modi said the day “will always be etched in golden letters as far as India’s space sector is concerned.” “This remarkable mission will carry the hopes and dreams of our nation,” he said in a Twitter post. India has since spent about $75 million on its Chandrayaan-3 mission.
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