India’s Space Agency successfully landed Chandrayaan-3 on the surface of the moon, becoming fourth country to touchdown on MoonThe first lunar lander to touch down at a pole.
Chandrayaan-3 is the Indian Space Resource Organization’s (ISRO’s) latest spacecraft. Launched last monthThe soft landing took place at 8:34 am ET on Sunday, August 23, 2008.
Chandrayaan-3, the mission that will begin the exploration of an area on the Moon of great interest, is the first spacecraft to actually visit the area.
It is believed that the south pole of the moon contains water ice, which could be used as a source for oxygen, fuel, water, and even a future colony on the moon.
This landing is just a few days after the Russian lunar mission failedFour years after Chandrayaan-2, the ISRO’s lander Crash on the MoonDue to a glitch in the guidance software at the last moment, on September 6, 2019.
Congratulations! @isro! #India‘s #Chandrayaan3The Moon’s South Pole was successfully reached on August 23. #MoonLanding pic.twitter.com/14NXkVIlOn
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) August 23, 2023
The spacecraft returned its first images of the lunar surface as well as images taken during descent shortly after landing.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
Updates:Communication link established between MOX-ISTRAC Bengaluru and the Ch-3 Lander
Here are images captured by the Lander Horizontal Velocity Camera on the descent. #Chandrayaan_3#Ch3 pic.twitter.com/ctjpxZmbom
— ISRO (@isro) August 23, 2023
The mission director P. Veeramuthuvel stated that the entire mission operation, from launch to landing, went according to schedule.
I would like to thank the navigation guidance and controls team, the propulsion team and sensors team as well as all of the mainframe subsystems teams for their contribution to this successful mission. The critical operations review team deserves a special thanks for its thorough examination of the mission’s operations from the launch to this point. The review process helped to pinpoint the target.”
Since the launch of ISRO on July 14, 2023 a team from Jet Propulsion Laboratory is providing navigation and tracking assistance for ISRO via NASA’s Deep Space Network, as well mission support in the years prior to launch.
NASA and ESA provide deep space communication support for the Chandrayaan-3 Mission.
Deep Space Station 65 #DSS65 @Madrid_DSNSpain is now online, and communicating through it #Chandrayaan3.
🌍📡〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️🛰️🌖🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/KOQFnqyI1f— CanberraDSN 📡 (@CanberraDSN) August 23, 2023
Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander will deploy the rover Pragyan, which will help to gain insights into lunar surface composition. The rover will look for water ice present in the lunar regolith while also studying the history and evolution of atmospheric conditions on the Moon.
The mission will last one lunar day (14 Earth days) and the rover is going to carry out several scientific experiments, including a spectral study of the minerals found on the surface of the moon.
Kalpana Kalahasti was the associate project director. She said that this moment will always be remembered and celebrated by our team. Livestream after the landing.
“We achieved our goal perfectly, since the day we began rebuilding our spacecraft following the Chandrayaan 2 experiment. Our team has been a breath of fresh air! The Chandrayaan-3 crew has made this all possible. “Thank you to all the departments for their help.”
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi watched the landing live and spoke to the team.
“All the people of the world, the people of every country and region: India’s successful Moon mission is not just India’s alone … this success belongs to all of humanity,” Modi said, speaking on the ISRO webcast of the event. “We all can aspire to the Moon and beyond.”
This article was first published by Universe Today. Read theOriginal Article.
