All eyes for the global space community, will be set on Chandrayaan-3 — India’s historic moon mission to the lunar south pole. Space scientists and enthusiasts alike, all will be watching with bated breath, as humans — for the first time — attempt a landing and exploration on the Moon’s non-visible south pole. Russia also attempted a similar landing with Luna-25, but the probe crashed on the moon, failing to achieve any desired objectives.
If Chandrayaan-3 does make a successful landing, not only will that make India the only country to land a craft on lunar south-pole, it would also open up a plethora of scientific answers to some of humanity’s biggest space questions.
This mission, while of immense global scientific importance already, would also herald a new era for India’s space exploration plans. The country is gearing up for its first human spaceflight program next year, and has ambitious plans for landing humans on both moon and mars in a not-so-far-future. And that India is able to achieve all this, with a combined annual space budget equivalent to nearly a tenth of NASA’s, further adds to the promise of affordable space travel in the near future.
Watch the landing LIVE, right here
If all goes to plan, the lander is expected to a make a touchdown on the lunar south pole at 18:04 hrs. Indian Standard Time (12:34 hrs. GMT). And if you are in your busy Wednesday working day, here’s us offering you a live stream option, right here:
Chandrayaan-3 Mission specs
Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2, which India launched back in 2019. While Chandrayaan-2 was also a orbiter+lander mission, the later part failed as the lander crashed into the moon. Nevertheless, C-2 continued to orbit the moon, and does so till date, sending back crucial data. The orbiter also recently made contact with Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover, thus helping ISRO keep a contact with the lander through multiple channels.
The propulsion module that carried the Chandrayaan-3 lander-rover combo, has Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and Polari metric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit.
Lander payloads: Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature; Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) for measuring the seismicity around the landing site; Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate the plasma density and its variations. A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA is accommodated for lunar laser ranging studies.
Rover payloads: Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of landing site.
