Ex-ISRO official gives a sneak preview of Chandrayaan-3 before launch

“The landing area has been increased and the exact location of landing is known due to data collected from our last mission,” the scientist said referring to Chandrayaan-2, which crash-landed on the moon in September 2019. “The lander’s legs have been strengthened so that it can handle a slightly higher landing velocity.”

“The fuel quantity has been increased and the size of solar panels is now bigger. Additionally, some extra touchdown sensors, altimeters and position detection cameras have been added,” said Naik.

The former group director of ISRO attributed Chandrayaan-2’s crash to a failure in adequately reducing its speed. “Out of 46 such missions by different countries, less than half were successful because this kind of landing is rather difficult. It is comparatively easier to land on Mars as it has more gravity and atmosphere.”

India’s success in this mission would make it the fourth country after the United States, Russia and China, to have made a soft-landing on the moon.

“Because the orbiter of Chandrayaan-2 is working perfectly well, we will be using the same orbiter for Chandrayaan-3, thus saving a cost of Rs 375 crore,” said Naik adding that the cost of of Chandrayaan-3 will be Rs 600 crore.

“The rocket has come from Thiruvananthapuram, the engine and satellite from different ISRO centres in Bengaluru and the payloads from Ahmedabad. All the equipment have been assembled at Sriharikota,” he said.

“I feel excited and proud,” said Vishvaja Khandakar, a first-year student of Physics. The hall buzzed with questions and excitement as it was also announced that the college would do a live-screening of the launch on Friday.