After its predecessor failed in 2019, Chandrayaan-3, the most recent iteration of India's ambitious moon project, has made history by successfully landing on the lunar surface.
India became the fourth country in the world to make a soft landing on the moon after the former Soviet Union, the United States, and China. On Wednesday at the scheduled time of 5:34am PT (6:04pm IST), more than a month after the spacecraft's launch. It was also the first nation to land on the lunar south pole, which is still an unexplored region that is anticipated to help in the understanding of the moon's atmosphere and open the way for future space exploration programs.
Following the successful landing, ISRO Chairman S. Somanath addressed the crowd at the space agency's mission operation complex in Bengaluru and said, "Chandrayaan-3 is a result of the work done by thousands of scientists, engineers, our staff and industries and support teams across ISRO and other places, other institutions."
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was launched on July 14 by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) using its "Launch Vehicle Mark-III" vehicle. The Satish Dhawan Space Center on the island of Sriharikota in South India served as the launch site. Bill Nelson, the administrator of NASA, also congratulated ISRO on Chandrayaan-3's successful moon landing in a post on X. We're happy to work with you on this mission.
Less than half the budget of the $165 million Hollywood movie Interstellar was spent on India's Chandrayaan-3 moon project, which cost Rs 615 crore ($75 million). A space movie cost more than a real space trip, which is astonishing but true. The Chandrayaan-3 is planned to continue operating for another two weeks while carrying out a number of experiments, including a spectrometer investigation of the lunar surface's mineral makeup.
The Chandrayaan-3 lander is roughly the size of an SUV, standing about 2 meters tall and weighing slightly over 1,700 kg (3,747.86 lb). It is intended to launch a 26-kg lunar rover that is smaller.
According to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, the American space agency is "looking forward" to the lessons that the Indian mission will provide.
Chandrayaan-3 was launched more than 14 years after India's first moon landing mission, which discovered signs of water molecules in the lunar atmosphere in 2008. Of course, we didn't do this on our own. This is the result of a generation of ISRO scientists and leadership. Moreover, this is a voyage that we began with Chandrayaan-1 and continued with Chandrayaan-2, and the Chandrayaan-2 craft is still operational and actively collaborating with us. While we celebrate Chandrayaan-3, we should remember and express our gratitude to all the teams who worked on Chandrayaan-1 and Chandrayaan-2, Somanath added.
"India's successful moon mission is not just India's alone," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi remarked. "Our guiding principle of one Earth, one family, and one future is striking a chord everywhere. This human-centered strategy, which we describe and which we stand for, has won widespread acceptance. Our lunar expedition follows the same human-centered methodology. Therefore, this achievement belongs to all of humanity and will support future moon missions by other nations. All nations, especially those in the global south, are capable of accomplishing such feats, in my opinion. All of us are capable of having lofty aspirations.
With the aim of researching and showcasing new technology necessary for interplanetary missions, Chandrayaan-3 is made up of an indigenous Lander module (LM), Propulsion module (PM), and Rover. The Lander will be able to soft land at a chosen location on the moon and release the Rover, which will conduct in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface while it is moving. There are scientific payloads on the Lander and the Rover that will conduct lunar surface tests. The main job of PM is to transport the LM from injection into the launch vehicle to the final 100 km circular polar orbit of the moon and then to release the LM from PM. In addition to this, the Propulsion Module carries a scientific payload that will operate when the Lander Module separates. LVM3 M4 has been identified as the launch vehicle for Chandrayaan-3, and it will deposit the integrated module in an Elliptic Parking Orbit (EPO) with a dimension of approximately 170 x 36500 km.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
Updates:
The communication link is established between the Ch-3 Lander and MOX-ISTRAC, Bengaluru.
Here are the images from the Lander Horizontal Velocity Camera taken during the descent. #Chandrayaan_3#Ch3 pic.twitter.com/ctjpxZmbom— ISRO (@isro) August 23, 2023