Chandrayaan 3

Chandrayaan 3

Chandrayaan 3 is an ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) mission with the primary objective of putting a lander and rover in the highlands near the south pole of the Moon on 23 August 2023 and demonstrating end-to-end landing and roving capabilities.

Chandrayaan 3 mission is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.

Now India has become the first country to successfully land a spacecraft near the lunar south pole, and the fourth country to soft land on the Moon.

Facts in Brief
Launch Date:	Chandrayaan 3 was launched on 14th July 2023
Launch Vehicle:	LVM 3 M4
Launch Site:	SDSC-SHAR Sriharikota
Mass:	3895 kg
Nominal Power:	738 W
Funding Agency	Indian Space Research Organization (India)

 

Chandrayaan 3 comprises a lander and rover configuration and a propulsion module. The lander/rover is similar to the Vikram rover on Chandrayan 2, with improvements to help ensure a safe landing. The propulsion module carried the lander and rover configuration to lunar orbit in preparation for a powered descent by the lander.

• The propulsion module has a Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and Polarimetric measurement of Earth from the lunar orbit.

Mission Objectives of Chandrayaan 3:

1. To demonstrate a safe and soft landing on the Lunar Surface
2. To demonstrate Rover roving on the Moon
3. To conduct in-situ scientific experiments.

Mission Profile

• Chdrayaan 3 launched on 14 July 2023 at 9:05:17 UT (2:35 p.m. India standard time), on a GSLV mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India, into an approximately 170 x 36,500 km elliptic Earth parking orbit.
• On August 5 the spacecraft was placed into a 164 x 18,074 lunar orbit by a 30-minute engine firing.
• A number of firings by the propulsion module put the lander /rover into 100 km circular polar lunar orbit by August 17. The Vikram Lander then separated.
• It began its powered descent towards the surface at 12:14 UT on 23 August and landed in the South Polar region of the Moon.

 

Picture credit: ISRO

References:

• https://www.isro.gov.in/Chandrayaan3_Details.html
• Click to access LVM3M4_Chandrayaan3_brochure.pdf
• https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=CHANDRYN3

 

Thank you