India on Wednesday etched its name in Space History and became the only fourth country to master the technology of soft-landing on the lunar surface after the US, China, and the erstwhile Soviet Union. With the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan 3, India has erased its failure of 2019 when Chandrayaan 2 failed to achieve its soft landing on the South Pole of the moon. On Tuesday it was speculated that the Chandryaan 3 landing might get delayed, however, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) clarified that the lander will touchdown the moon at its scheduled time and following that rover will come out from the lander and roam at the unexplored part of the moon. Notably, the rover will also leave India's imprints- Ashok Stambh wherever it will travel on the moon.
At 5:44 PM, the first phase of Chandrayaan 3 initiated in which the ISRO scientists reduced its speed from 1680 m/sec to 350m/sec. The first phase was considered the most difficult as ISRO had to apply breaks to its speed. The landing was completed in 4 phases. The first phase was of 10 minutes, the second was of 10 seconds. The first phase was the toughest because the fear was that Chandrayaan 3 might deviate and lose connection due to a sudden break. However, with the entire world praying for India, Chandrayaan 3 successfully completed its first phases. When the Chandrayaan 3 was 9.5 km away from the moon, PM Modi joined the landing program virtually from South Africa for the 15th BRICS Summit. Apart from PM Modi, EAM S Jaishankar also joined him to witness the landing. At 5:56 PM the first phase of Chandrayaan 3 landing was successfully completed.
When Chandryaan 3 was 1 KM away, the vertical descent started. During this, entire ISRO scientists were in jubilation and started clapping witnessing India creating history.
Chandrayaan 3 is Lunar Exploration Mission and it was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota on July 14, 2023, at 2:35 p.m. IST.
What are the main objectives of Chandrayaan 3?
As per ISRO, Chandrayaan 3's main objectives are 1) To demonstrate Safe and Soft Landing on Lunar Surface, 2) To demonstrate Rover roving on the moon and, 3) To conduct in-situ scientific experiments. It is pertinent to mention here that the Chandrayaan 3 mission costed roughly $77 million USD.
How ISRO divided Chandrayaan 3's strategic journey?
ISRO divided Chandrayaan-3's roughly 40-day journey to the moon into three distinct segments: the Earth-centric phase, the lunar transfer phase and the moon-centric phase.
What the Chandrayaan 3 carried to the moon?
Lander payloads: 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. A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA is accommodated for lunar laser ranging studies.
Rover payloads: Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of landing site.