The primary objective of the Chandrayaan-3 mission is to achieve a soft landing on the Moon. It follows in the footsteps of the Chandrayaan-2 mission, which ended in failure in 2019. The mission will be India's contribution to what can be termed a bit of a new space race. The United States is planning humanity's return to the Moon with the Artemis program. China, meanwhile, is planning multiple unmanned missions to the Moon after finding what could turn out to be a valuable mineral on the Moon.
But it is not as easy as it sounds. The path to a soft landing on the Moon is littered with hazards that could end the mission in the blink of an eye. Chandrayaan-2, Israel's Beresheet and Japan's Hakuto are fairly recent missions which underlined that fact with their failures.
Hopefully, the launch itself should not be problematic because ISRO has already gone through the exact same motions with Chandrayaan-2. That mission only went off course during the crucial final minutes before the landing. During that time, the spacecraft's onboard systems have to make quick calculations and correct its course autonomously to ensure a soft landing on the Moon.
The launch itself is something ISRO has already carried out multiple times, with the Chandrayaan-3 mission being LVM-3's fourth operational mission.
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has left Earth's orbit and inserted itself into a translunar orbit early on Tuesday, according to ISRO. The distance to the Moon should be covered in about five days and on August 5, it should enter a lunar orbit. Once the spacecraft reaches its initial lunar orbit, it will begin getting to a lower and lower orbit until the lander and rover are ready to be deployed.
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The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft completed its fifth and final orbit-raising manoeuvre on Tuesday, July 25, according to ISRO. The next time the spacecraft will fire will be between 12 midnight and 1 AM IST on August 1, 2023 for the Translunar injection. The space agency is yet to confirm if the spacecraft has achieved the desired orbit.
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft completed its fourth successful orbit-raising manoeuvre on Thursday, July 20, said ISRO. The space agency also confirmed its new orbit parameters. In its latest orbit, the spacecraft will be at a distance of 233 kilometres from the Earth at its nearest and 71,351 kilometres at its farthest.
The "...craft is on way to the Moon. In another few days it will go (the lander will soft-land on the Lunar surface," said ISRO chairman Somanath S while delivering the inaugural address to the Space Science Technology & AwaReness Training (START) programme 2023, according to PTI. "I am sure that you will find something very substantial through this (Chandrayaan-3) mission as far as science is concerned," he added.
ISRO announced that the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft's fourth orbit-raising manoeuvre has been successfully completed. The space agency is yet to officially confirm the orbit parameters of the mission after the firing. The next manoeuvre is scheduled to happen between 2 and 3 PM IST on July 25.
ISRO has confirmed the success of the third orbit-raising manoeuvre that happened between 2 and 3 PM IST on Tuesday, July 18. The spacecraft is now in an Earth orbit where it will be 228 kilometres above the planet at its closest and 51,400 kilometres at its farthest. The next firing is scheduled to happen between 2PM and 3PM IST on Thursday, July 20.
ISRO announced in a tweet that the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft completed its third orbit-raising manoeuvre on Tuesday, July 18. The space agency did not yet reveal the new orbit parameters of the spacecraft after the manoeuvre. The next manoeuvre is scheduled to happen between 2 and 3 PM on Thursday, July 20.
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft successfully completed its second orbit raising manoeuvre, putting it in a 41603 km x 226 km orbit around the Earth, said ISRO on Monday. The spacecraft's third firing should happen between 2 and 3 PM on Tuesday.
Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation successfully performed the first orbit raising manoeuvre of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on Saturday, the space agency said. The health of the spacecraft was "normal", ISRO said on Twitter.
Chandrayaan-3 is now in an orbit, which when closest to Earth is at 173 kilometres and farthest from Earth is at 41,762 km. (PTI)
LVM3 M4 spacecraft is now in 41762 km x 173 km orbit, ISRO confirms. The first orbit-raising maneuver (Earthbound firing-1) has been successfully performed at ISTRAC/ISRO, Bengaluru.
The historic Chandrayaan-3 mission launched on Friday will undergo a crucial 40-day phase as the "onboard thrusters would be fired and taken further away from Earth for an eventful landing on Moon's surface," Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre S Unnikrishnan Nair said.
Speaking to reporters in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday, Nair said that the launch vehicle has performed extremely well and the initial conditions required for the spacecraft have been provided "very precisely".
~PTI
LVM3 correctly placed the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into the right orbit around the Earth but in a way, that is just the beginning of the mission. What happens now?
The spacecraft will now engage in various orbit-raising manoeuvres, making its orbit around the planet more and more eccentric with each revolution. Once it reaches an appropriate distance from the planet, it will enter an Earth-to-Moon transfer orbit. After this, it will get captured by the Moon’s gravity.
It will then initiate lunar orbit manoeuvring, getting its orbit tighter and tighter around the natural satellite. Once it reaches a 100-kilometre orbit, the Vikram lander module will separate from the orbiter component. The orbiter will scan the lunar surface, and Vikram will scan the landing zone from orbit.
Vikram will then initiate deboosting procedures to get itself closer to the surface before it eventually soft lands on the Moon if all goes well. Once the Vikram lander makes a safe landing, it will deploy the Pragyan rover on the lunar surface. The video below is a handy guide to the launch-to-landing process made for Chandrayaan-2, and therefore, it also applies to Chandrayaan-3.
ISRO shared a video showing the LVM3 launch and payload separation from the point of view of the spacecraft.
As India attempts to join an exclusive group of countries where China is already a member, the latter has gone past an important space exploration milestone: the launch of the world's first "methalox" (methane and liquid oxygen powered) rocket in the world. The Zhuque-2 rocket, built by a private space technology company, took off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 6.30 AM IST on Wednesday. It was the second attempt to launch the rocket by Beijing-based firm LandSpace. An earlier attempt had failed in December last year.
Veteran space scientist professor EV Chitnis told The Indian Express that he experienced more confidence and lesser anxiety about the mission as Chandrayaan-3 began its journey to the Moon.
“Space missions are difficult and involve controlling many parameters remotely. It is a communications challenge. But I have faith in India’s talent. So far, India has done quite well and one knows, they (ISRO) are going to do it,” said the 97-year-old Chitnis.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission is almost identical to its predecessor, Chandrayaan-2. But during the latter, the Vikram lander crashed into the lunar surface instead of making a landing. But that doesn’t mean the mission was a complete failure. ISRO learned from what happened during that mission to make some crucial upgrades to Chandrayaan-2.
Some of the upgrades were made to the lander, including strengthened legs, a bigger fuel tank, solar panels on all four sides instead of just two, more navigation instruments, and updated software. The space agency also put the lander through many strenuous stress tests and exercises to improve its chances of survival in the harsh lunar environment.
Chandrayaan-3 successfully took off from the launchpad yesterday and also got into the correct orbit around the Earth. But that is just the beginning of the mission as far as the spacecraft is concerned. In the coming days, its orbit around the Earth will get more and more eccentric with each revolution before it is ready to transfer to a lunar orbit before finally trying to soft-land on the surface about 42 days after launch.
On average, the Moon is about 384,400 kilometres away from the Earth. But Chandrayaan-3 will be taking a longer route to Earth’s lone satellite in a bid to conserve fuel. With that path, the Vikram lander of the mission is expected to soft-land on the surface of the South Pole region of the Moon in about 42 days from launch, around August 25.
When Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon on July 20, 1969, India was going through a tumultuous period. Banks were being nationalised and the ruling dispensation was making moves that would eventually result in the Emergency six years later.
But humanity reaching the Moon also captured the imagination of Indian leaders here on Earth. The Apollo 11 aircraft carried messages from many different world leaders. The one by Indira Gandhi read, “This unique occasion when man traverses outer space to set foot on Earth’s nearest neighbour, Moon, I send my greetings and good wishes to the brave astronauts who have launched on this great venture. I fervently hope that this event will usher in an era of peaceful endeavour for all mankind.”
The LVM-3 launch rocket separated from the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft shortly after the latter was injected into the right orbit around Earth. The spacecraft, which now makes its way to the Moon, has three main parts—the propulsion module and the lander module which also contains the rover module.
The propulsion module’s main job is to carry the spacecraft from an injection orbit around Earth to a lunar orbit. But it is also carrying a “SHAPE” payload that will take spectral and polarimetric observations of Earth from the lunar orbit after the lander separates. Here are the other science payloads being carried by the mission.
India’s third mission to the moon — Chandrayaan-3 — took off successfully from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota Friday. Minister of State for Department of Space Dr Jitendra Singh talks to Anonna Dutt about the significance of the mission and how it makes India’s inputs invaluable in the global scientific arena.
Read the full interview
In an interview with The Indian Express, Minister of State for Department of Space Jitendra Singh spoke about how increased spending in space will help the common man.
“We have not confined ourselves to just launching rockets in the last eight to nine years, we have taken space technology to every Indian household. It is being applied in a great measure in almost every sector, whether it be building of roads, railway tracks, smart cities, jal mission, tele-medicine, tele-education. You name a sector and there is space technology. If you look at the ambitious Swamitva mission — the property survey programme — it is being done by space technology. Space technology now is contributing to ease of living,” he said.
"The Chandrayaan-3 is going to give a quantum leap to India’s role in the global arena. The entire world is watching — what we learn from this mission will be important for the global scientific community at large," said Minister of State for Department of SpaceJitendra Singh to The Indian Express, speaking about the successful launch of the mission.
"Chandrayaan-1 detected the presence of water on the moon and now the Chandrayaan-3 rover will take it to the next level. The landing of the lander-rover was planned close to the southern pole of the moon because it is an area that has a large number of craters," he added.
Chandrayaan-3, India’s third Moon mission, took off from the Sriharikota launching range on Friday. The mission hopes to put behind the failure of Chandrayaan-2, which had crashed on the lunar surface in 2019. Important improvements have been made in the design to ensure that another accident is avoided.
While attempting a soft-landing on September 7, 2019, Chandrayaan-2 had failed to reduce its speed to the desired level in the final seconds of descent. Scientists later detected problems in both the software and the hardware — in consequence, the software and hardware in Chandrayaan-3 have been equipped with several additional capabilities.
We explain.
As Chandrayaan- 3 commenced its journey to moon after a successful lift-off from Sriharikota on Friday, veteran space scientist Professor EV Chitnis said that he experienced more confidence and lesser anxiety about the mission.
On Friday, as India embarks for its second attempt to land on the lunar surface after four years, 97-year-old Chitnis was closely following the mission updates both on radio and TV from his home at Aundh in Pune.
“Space missions are difficult and involve controlling many parameters remotely. It is a communications challenge. But I have faith in India's talent. So far, India has done quite well and one knows, they (ISRO) are going to do it,” Chitnis told The Indian Express after Friday's successful launch.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it was Chitnis who Vikram Sarabhai had entrusted upon the task of identifying an ideal location for setting up a rocket launching site for India. Back then, the space scientist made atleast a hundred trips to various locations across the length and the breadth of the country, including southern India, before zeroing down on Thumba - the coastal town in Kerala.
“I still recall the day when we discovered Thumba for carrying out sounding rocket experiments, which are required for performing atmospheric studies. It was like starting something from zero. We had beginner's luck, too. That may have been a tiny but the first step and (everything) till date have been many big achievements for ISRO,” said Chitnis, who retired as the director, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad.
“I FEEL like my entire life’s work has been worthwhile for this one moment,” said S Mohana Kumar, ISRO’s mission director for the launch of Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the LMV3 rocket after the near-perfect liftoff on Friday.
“I am feeling euphoric. I did not know what to speak when the Chairman (ISRO chief S Somanath) called me to speak. All the notes on the paper were forgotten,” he told The Indian Express.
It was Kumar who made the first formal announcement of the launch success at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. “This is the mission director. The LVM3/Chandrayaan mission accomplished its precise satellite injection conditions. LVM3-M4 mission is successful,” he said.
A few minutes later, he was called to speak about the launch. The euphoric mission director needed to be told by the ISRO Chairman to keep his speech short even as he began detailing various aspects of the LVM3 success. “This is the result of the penance of many across ISRO centres,” he said. “This is the result of the penance of the last 73 days.”
“I am very happy to say that the LVM 3 rocket has injected the Chandrayaan-3 satellite into a precise orbit and once again the vehicle has proved to be one of the most reliable heavy lift of ISRO,” Kumar said. “We are in the process of increasing frequency of the launch of this vehicle considering the national requirement...,” he said before indicating that the rocket is being readied to be capable of carrying humans to space.
Speaking to The Indian Express later, the mission director said he was relieved that his primary job had been executed perfectly and that it was now up to the spacecraft team headed by project director for Chandrayaan-3 P Veeramuthuvel to take it to the moon. “My job is over now. I am relieved,” he said.
Thank you for joining us for our exclusive coverage of the Chandrayaan-3 launch. Stay tuned as we bring you more exciting updates on Chandrayaan-3 and other related developments tomorrow. Keep an eye on this space!
As the Chandrayaan-3 lifted off into the crisp blue skies above Sriharikota and tore through the fluffy clouds, spectators cheered, wishing the rocket luck for its 1 month-long journey.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission is hitching a ride to space on ISRO’s most powerful rocket—the Launch Vehicle Mark-III. The launch vehicle is powered by two S2000 solid rocket boosters that will provide the thrust required for takeoff. The L110 liquid stage will take over once the solid boosters separate from the launch vehicle. After the liquid stage is separated, the CE25 cryogenic stage will power the vehicle.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to his Twitter account to express his thoughts on the launch of Chandrayaan-3. “Chandrayaan-3 scripts a new chapter in India's space odyssey. It soars high, elevating the dreams and ambitions of every Indian. This momentous achievement is a testament to our scientists' relentless dedication. I salute their spirit and ingenuity!” he wrote.
Meanwhile, President Droupadi Murmu, in her tweet extended her heartfelt congratulations to the ISRO team and everyone who worked relentlessly to accomplish the feat. “It demonstrates the nation's unwavering commitment to advancement in space science and technology. My best wishes for the success of the lunar mission,” she wrote.
Here is a short clip of LVM3 taking off from the launchpad in case you missed it.
Chandrayaan-3's launch has gone exactly according to plan. But now, mission teams are faced with a 42-day period during which the spacecraft has to complete multiple manoeuvres before it starts its descent onto the lunar surface.
There are still many critical events set to happen soon including earth-bound manoeuvres, insertion into the lunar orbit, separation of lander, a set of deboost manoeuvres and a power descent phase for a soft landing, according to P Veeramuthuvel, project director of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft.
LVM3 has injected the Chandrayaan-3 into the desired orbit around the Earth.
The core stage has separated from the launch vehicle and the CE 25 cryogenic stage has been ignited.
The payload fairing covering the spacecraft has separated from the spacecraft
The S200 solid boosters have separated from the rocket.
The rocket's L110 core stage has commenced operations.
The LVM3 rocket has taken off from the launchpad in Sriharikota.
The Chandrayan-3 mission is going through its automatic launch sequence and just four minutes are left
The mission director S Mohan Kumar has confirmed that the LVM3 spacecraft is ready for launch after all clearances have been completed. He has authorised the mission for launch. Now, the automatic launch sequence is scheduled to begin soon.
As the mission heads into its final countdown, ISRO chairman S Somanath can be seen in the mission control room.
ISRO Chairman S Somanath has arrived at mission control ahead of the launch of the Chandrayaan-3 mission. Scientists are conducting the final checks on the rocket as the mission counts down to the launch time of 14:35:17 (2.35 PM IST).
The mission director for LVM3-M4/Chandrayaan 3 is S Mohana Kumar, a senior scientists from the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. He earlier served as the director for the successful commercial launch of the One Web India 2 satellites on board the LVM3-M3 mission.
There are three key persons who will be sharing the limelight during the launch and consecutive progress of the Chandrayaan-3 mission—S Somanath, chairman of ISRO, S Mohan Kumar, the mission director, and P Veeramuthuvel, the project director for the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft.
In 2019, the Chandrayaan-2 mission was at the launchpad at the Satish Dhawan Space Center on July 15, which was initially the day it was supposed to launch. But about an hour before blast off, an anomaly was detected and the launch had to be called off. The glitch was later fixed and Chandrayaan 2 launched on July 22.
Such changes in schedule are not out of the ordinary for space missions. NASA’s Artemis 1 mission, for example, went through two aborted launches before it successfully took off on the third attempt. When sending expensive missions into the challenging environment of space, it is better to be safe rather than sorry.
The liquid second stage of LVM 3 has been filled with propellant and soon, the cryogenic stage will also soon complete propellant loading.
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has three modules—the lander module a propulsion module and a rover module, The propulsion modules designed to carry the spacecraft from an injection orbit around the planet till a 100-kilometre lunar orbit. It will also be carrying a payload that will take spectral and polarimetric measurements of Earth from a lunar orbit.
As can be gleaned from their names, the lander module is designed to land on the Moon, where it will release the rover module, which can travel short distances on Earth’s lone satellite. Both the lander and the rover will be carrying many science payloads.
The constant tempo of SpaceX and Soyuz launches to the International Space Station might have us forgetting oine important truth that still holds—space is difficult. This is especially true when you are trying to travel hundreds of thousands of kilometres to the Moon instead of a few hundred kilometres to the low-earth orbit.
Earlier the same year that the Chandrayaan-2 mission’s Vikram lander met with its unfortunate fate, Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft also crash-landed on the lunar surface. The year of Chandrayaan-3’s launch is no different. In April 2023, Hakuto, a mission developed by private Japanese space technology company iSpace, also crashed into the Moon after taking a long circuitous route there to conserve fuel.
Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on to the unsuccessful Chandrayaan-3 mission. The science and the objectives of today's launch remain largely the same between the missions. That means that this animation published by ISRO for Chandrayaan-2 is also a handy guide for what you can expect from today's launch.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission will be launched into space by the Laaunch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM-III). It was earlier known as GSLV-III (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Marks-III) and it was also used to launch the Chandrayaan-2 mission. It is the most powerful in ISRO’s arsenal at the moment.
The initial launch will be powered by two S2000 rocket boosters that will provide the thrust required for takeoff. After the solid boosters separate from the vehicle about two minutes in, the L110 liquid stage will power it. About five minutes into launch, the liquid stage will separate from the rocket body and the CE25 cryogenic stage will take over. Finally, at about 16 minutes into launch, the rocket will separate from the Chandrayaan spacecraft, which will continue on its orbit around the Earth.
On average, the Moon is about 384,400 kilometres away from the Earth. But Chandrayaan-3 will be taking a longer route to Earth’s lone satellite in a bid to conserve fuel. With that path, the Vikram lander of the mission is expected to soft land on the surface of the South Pole region of the Moon on around August 23 or August 24.
Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on to the Chandrayaan-2 mission, which ended in tears after the Vikram lander crashed into the lunar surface in 2019. The same year, Beresheet, an Israeli-built spacecraft also failed at the same objective. Hakuto-R, a Japanese-led mission, also crashed into the lunar surface this year. Why is a soft landing on the Moon so difficult?
Well, to begin with, getting as far as the Moon is very hard in the first place. It is more than 384,400 kilometres away from our planet. This means that reaching there are orders of magnitude more difficult than going to the low-Earth orbit.
Also, Earth’s lone satellite has an extremely thin atmosphere. This means that spacecraft cannot rely on atmospheric drag to slow them down to a reasonable speed before landing. Since they need to use their propulsion systems for the descent, it means that they will need more fuel and more advanced landing computation systems.
The journey of the last few kilometres above the lunar surface is essential. Here, flight computers need to make extremely quick calculations and manoeuvres to make sure that the landing is going right. Also, there is no GPS on the Moon, which makes it more difficult to land at the pre-selected safe landing area.
While speaking to reporters in 2020, K Sivan, the chairman of ISRO at the time, said that the Chandrayaan-3 mission will cost over Rs 615 crore. Sivan broke up the cost, adding that the lander, rover and propulsion module would cost Rs 250 crore and that launch services would cost Rs 365 crore.
But this figure was given before the pandemic hit and before the entire mission was delayed by years. Considering the fact that Chandrayaan-3 was initially supposed to launch in 2021 and that it is now only launching well into 2023, there is a good chance that the mission’s budget has ballooned.
China’s National Space Administration, its equivalent of ISRO, received approval to send three unmanned missions to the Moon in the next decade, according to a Bloomberg report. This comes after a new lunar mineral called “Changesite-(Y)” was found in samples retrieved by the country’s Chang’e-5 mission. It is believed that the mineral contains helium-3, an isotope that could potentially be a future energy source.
According to Amitabh Sinha of The Indian Express, the water discovered on the Moon can be used to create hydrogen, which is often used as rocket fuel. Each molecule of water contains two hydrogen molecules and one oxygen molecule. If the molecules were split using something like solar-powered electrolysis, it could possibly viably produce hydrogen for rocket launches.
But why launch from the Moon? Well, since the Moon has much weaker gravitational forces than the Earth, it would be much easier to launch a rocket into space from there. This could make Earth’s lone satellite an important stepping point for missions to Mars and beyond. You can learn more in the upcoming Our Own Devices podcast where Sinha talks to Nandagopal Rajan about the mission.
In a way, humanity has already conquered the Moon more than half a century ago when the Apollo 11 mission landed astronauts on its surface. Since then, many American-led crewed mission have headed to Earth’s lone satellites as part of the Apollo program. The number of uncrewed missions are even higher. So, why is there a sudden new space race to go back to somewhere we have already been before?
One of the main reasons is scientific interest. This includes looking for water on the Moon and understanding more about the solar system and its history through clues on Luna. Another reason is that the Moon could be a stepping stone for the further exploration of the solar system–Mars and beyond.For that, we will need to understand how to utilise the resources on the Moon to build a base there.
These are just some of the motivations behind what could be thought of as a reignition of the space race. NASA’s Artemis program is a testament to that.
ISRO says that propellant loading for the liquid L110 stage has been completed and that currently, propellant is being loaded in the cryogenic C25 stage of the LVM3 launch vehicle.
The privately-built Chinese Zhuque-2 rocket launched into orbit on Wednesday, becoming the world’s first methane-liquid oxygen rocket. The company beat rivals from across the world to send what could be the next generation of launch vehicles sent into space. Methane is deemed as a less-polluting, safer, cheaper and more suitable propellant for use in a reusable rocket.
The Chandrayaan-2 mission went smoothly till the crucial last leg of its journey to the Moon, when the Vikram lander crash landed on the lunar surface instead of gracefully landing intact. Earlier the same year, Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft had also encountered such a failure. Interestingly, Hakuto, a Japanese private company-led mission, crashed into the lunar surface earlier this year. Both Hakuto and Bereshet were missions developed by private space technology companies.