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File photo: Chandrayaan 2 launch.
(IANS/PIB)
- Chandrayaan 3 will not carry an orbiter—but will include a lander and a rover to study the lunar surface.
- Despite the apparent hard landing of the lander, the Chandrayaan-2 mission is believed to be 95-98% successful.
- The Chandrayaan 1 mission had provided conclusive evidence for the presence of ice water on the poles.
India’s Moon mission successor—Chandrayaan-3—may be launched somewhere in early 2021, as per the announcement from the Minister of State for the Department of Space, Jitendra Singh on Sunday.
The third lunar mission was earlier scheduled for 2020, but the ongoing pandemic and the lockdown imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus has stalled many of Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) preparations for Chandrayaan 3. Earlier in June, the ISRO had pushed the uncrewed Gaganyaan mission also to a later date.
In its second attempt, the Indian space agency is aiming to achieve a soft landing on the south pole of the lunar surface, which is least explored to date. Unlike its predecessor, Chandrayaan 3 will not carry an orbiter—but will include a lander and a rover to study the lunar surface.
In one of the earlier announcements this year by ISRO, K Sivan had said, “The Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter will be used for communicating with the lander and rover of Chandrayaan-3 during their mission on the moon.”
Chandrayaan 2.
(ISRO/IANS)
Moreover, reports suggest ISRO scientists will also be considering incorporating improvements that experts have suggested after analysing what went wrong in the previous mission. One such priority could be ‘strengthening the legs of the lander’ so as to improve its chances of survival in the event of another crash.
On September 7, 2019, the lander Vikram crashed on the surface while attempting a soft-land on the Earth’s only natural satellite Moon. As per ISRO, the lander’s trajectory began to deviate at about 2.1 km above the lunar surface, and the mission control subsequently lost all communication with the lander. The agency failed to re-establish the contact despite persistent efforts for several weeks.
Despite the apparent hard landing of the lander, the Chandrayaan-2 mission is believed to be 95-98% successful as all the instruments onboard the orbiter are functioning well and sending back data to ISRO. The mission has helped scientists to study the lunar atmosphere, topography, composition and other details.
A decade ago, the Chandrayaan 1 mission had provided conclusive evidence for the presence of ice water on the poles, which is devoid of sunlight. Moreover, recently the data from the mission was also used to examine the presence of rust or hematite on the lunar surface.
On the other hand, ISRO continues to rigorously work on one of its most anticipated missions, Gaganyaan—the first-ever human space mission. The training of astronauts has been going on in Russia and a couple of uncrewed precursor missions are likely to take off next year.
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