Chandrayaan-3’s next lunar orbit: According to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar mission, is coming closer to the Moon and will undertake another significant manoeuvre on Monday between 11:30am and 12:30pm. Even closer to the surface of the moon. Once all of the necessary procedures have been accomplished, a specific landing site near the “Moon’s south pole” will be selected. The propulsion module will then disengage from the lander while it is still in orbit, and the lander will drop from orbit and attempt to land softly.
Following today’s manoeuvre, Chandrayaan-3’s orbit has been decreased to 174 km x 1437 km. “The next mission is planned for August 14, 2023, between 11:30 and 12:30 Hrs. IST,” the ISRO announced on X (previously Twitter) in August.
These are the spacecraft’s final two orbit reduction manoeuvres to get it closer to the Moon, following which the landing module, which includes the lander and rover, will separate from the propulsion module.
On August 23, the lander is anticipated to “deboost” (slow down) and land softly in the Moon’s south polar area.
After launching on July 14, India’s ambitious third Moon mission’s spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 entered lunar orbit or the Moon’s orbit on August 5.
Over five moves in the three weeks since the July 14 launch, ISRO had lifted the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into orbits farther and farther away from the Earth.
Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-up mission to Chandrayaan-2 that will demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe lunar landing and wandering. It is made up of a lander and a rover. It is made up of an indigenous propulsion module, a lander module, and a rover, and its goal is to develop and demonstrate new technologies needed for interplanetary missions.
Chandrayaan-3’s mission objectives are to show safe and soft landings on the lunar surface, rover wandering on the Moon, and in-situ scientific research.
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