The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has fixed the date for the launch of its much-awaited Moon mission i.e. Chandrayaan-3. Officials announced on Wednesday that the rocket would be launched on July 13 at 2:30 p.m. local time. Chandrayaan-3 is now being sent after Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate its ability to safely land on the lunar surface and perform activities there.
Chandrayaan-2 was launched in 2019. It was largely a successful mission. The previous mission had managed to orbit the Moon, but the Vikram lander suffered a hard landing, preventing the rover from being deployed as planned. ISRO officials are confident about the chances of success of the upcoming mission. The Chandrayaan-3 mission is expected to deepen our understanding of the Moon with the main objective of demonstrating the ability to soft-land and operate a robotic rover on the lunar surface.
According to officials, Chandrayaan-3 will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh through launch vehicle Mark-3. He told that the time has been fixed for this on July 13 at 2:30 pm. The propellant module will propel the ‘lander’ and ‘rover’ to a 100-km lunar orbit. In this, a ‘spectro-polarimetry’ payload has also been added to study the polar measurements of the Earth from the Moon’s orbit.
The budget of this mission has been kept at Rs 615 crore. To minimize the risks and ensure a successful mission, Chandrayaan-3 has undergone rigorous testing and validation procedures. The mission design, including the lunar payload configuration, has been optimized based on lessons learned from previous missions.
This time, ISRO has taken important steps to ensure the success of the mission. The Chandrayaan-3 mission will consist of a lander and a rover similar to Chandrayaan-2 but will not have an orbiter. The propellant module, designed to behave like a communications relay satellite, will propel the lander and rover until the spacecraft is in a 100 km lunar orbit.
