India's Chandrayaan 3 mission, carrying the hopes of an entire nation,
was launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on 14 July in a magnificent
demonstration of ambition and tenacity. India will try to do what only three
nations have accomplished, and what it tried and failed to do in 2019,
soft-land a lander on the moon. If the mission is successful, India will join
the United States, China and Russia as the fourth nation to successfully
conduct a controlled landing on the moon.
The
spacecraft will travel from Earth to the moon in about a month, with the
projected landing day being August 23. Vikram will function on the lunar
surface for one lunar day, which is equal to 14 day on Earth.
India's third moon mission, Chandrayaan-3, is a continuation of
chandrayaan-2 which was launched in July 2019 and has as its goal to place a
rover on the lunar South pole. The Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota
has launched the mission on July 14, 2023, using a launch Vehicle Mark 3(LVM3).
Due to the COVID 19 pandemic's delay in its production, India is ready to
launch Chandrayaan-3 in 2022.
Chandrayaan-3 details:-
Chandrayaan-3 is India's third lunar mission
and second attempt at achieving a soft landing on the moon's surface. It
consists of a lander named Vikram and a rover named Pragyan similar to
Chandrayaan-2, but does not have an orbiter. Its propulsion module behaves like
a communication relay satellite. The propulsion module carries the lander and
rover configuration until the spacecraft is in a 100 km lunar orbit.
17.1.1) According to ISRO, the Chandrayaan-3 mission has three major objectives:
a)
Demonstrate safe and soft landing
on the surface of the Moon.
b)
Conduct rover operations on the
Moon, and
c)
Conduct on-site experiments on the
lunar surface.
17.1.2) Chandrayaan-3 payloads:
a)
The propulsion module: It has
Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to look for
smaller planets that might be habitable in the reflected light.
b)
Lander payloads: It will have 4
payloads -
●
Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound
Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA) - a passive experiment (from
NASA) to help accurately measure the distance between Earth and moon.
●
Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical
Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature;
●
Instrument for Lunar Seismic
Activity (ILSA) for measuring the seismicity around the landing site;
●
Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate
the plasma density and its variations.
c)
Rover payloads: Alpha Particle
X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) for
deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of the landing site.
17.1.3) Chandrayaan-3 path:
We can also shoot off a rocket straight to the moon. Only, the rocket
will have to be extremely big. To travel the distance of 384,400 km, the rocket
will have to carry enormous amounts of fuel. The fuel adds to the weight of the
rocket, so it would need to be more powerful. The Saturn V rocket that took
Apollo 11 to the moon in 1969 stood 363-feet tall. The LVM-3 is 142-feet tall.
Big rockets are very expensive. Besides, there is no urgency, there is no need
for the Chandrayaan-3 to reach the moon fast. That is why it takes a route that
makes use of the gravity of the earth to sling itself towards the moon.
Kepler’s second law of planetary motion states
that the imaginary line that connects a planet and its satellite sweeps equal
areas in equal intervals of time. This means that the satellite travels faster
as it approaches the planet and slows down as it moves away, while moving in an
elliptical orbit. The law also means that the farther an object approaches the
planet from, the higher the velocity it acquires as it comes closer to the
planet. We want to make use of this property to get Chandrayaan-3 enough velocity
to shoot off towards the moon.
So,
after the LVM-3 puts it above the earth, Chandrayaan-3 will start circling the
earth, on its own, in an elliptical orbit. When it reaches the farthest point,
engineers on the ground will nudge it slightly to change the direction a little
so that its next loop is bigger than the first. So, when the spacecraft
approaches the earth on its second loop, it will acquire a higher velocity.
Again, when it reaches the farthest point, called apogee, the engineers will once
again change the direction a little, so that on the third loop, the spacecraft
acquires an even higher velocity. On completing 5-6 such loops, the spacecraft
will have acquired enough velocity to sling itself towards the moon.
Once it reaches the moon, the reverse will happen. Loop-by-loop the
spacecraft will get closer to the moon. When it is about 100 km from the moon’s
surface, the lander will detach itself and begin its descent onto the moon.
17.1.4) Chandrayaan-3 Budget:
With a Rs. 615 crore budget, India's Chandrayaan-3 project seeks to
deploy a rover and place a lander on the moon's characteristics, Seismicity,
plasma environment and composition after launching on 14th of July 2023.
Chandrayaan-3 Improved upon Chandrayaan-2
17.2.1) Simplified payload:
Chandrayaan-3 will just have a lander and a rover, as opposed to
Chandrayaan-2, which also had an orbiter, the Pragyan rover, and the Vikram
lander. During the mission, the orbiter
that was launched with Chandrayaan-2 will be used for communication and terrain
mapping needs. Chandrayaan-3’s propulsion module will house a single instrument
called ‘Spectro-polarimetry of habitable planet Earth’ (SHAPE), as opposed to
Chandrayaan-2’s orbiter, which carried nine in-situ instruments.
17.2.2) Enhanced Lander capabilities:
‘Lander danger identification & avoidance cameras’ are a feature of
Chandrayaan-3 that let mission control, the orbiter, and the lander communicate
when the lander is descending to the lunar surface. Compared to its
predecessor’s single camera, Chandrayaan-3 will have two of these cameras.
— Team Yuva Aaveg
(Praveen Kumar Maurya)
To keep yourself updated!!
Join our channels
Best content for science lovers🫡
ReplyDeleteNice article about chandrayan 3,
ReplyDeleteWell explained ⚡
Well explained
ReplyDelete