Chandrayaan-3

Why in news?

• Chandrayaan-3 has made history by becoming the first mission to soft-land on the lunar south pole, a region that has never been explored before. The mission aimed to demonstrate safe and soft lunar landing, rover mobility, and in-situ scientific experiments.

About Chandrayaan-3:

• Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.
• It consists of an indigenous Lander module (LM), Propulsion module (PM) and a Rover with an objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for Inter planetary missions.
• The propulsion module is the one that will take the lander and the rover to the moon. This module does not land on the moon and instead settles on a parking orbit of 100 km x 100 km around the moon. The lander and rover, on the other hand, will separate from the propulsion module to land on the moon.
• The Lander will have the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the Rover which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility.
• India now joins the United States, Russia, and China as one of the few countries to successfully land on the Moon.

Pragyan rover and Vikram lander:

• Chandrayaan-3 is expected to operate for at least one lunar day (14 Earth days) on the lunar surface.
• The Pragyan rover will move around the landing site within a radius of 500 meters, conducting experiments and sending data and images to the lander.
• The Vikram lander will relay the data and images to the orbiter, which will then transmit them to Earth.
• Lander and Rover modules are collectively equipped with advanced scientific payloads.
• These instruments are designed to conduct comprehensive investigations into diverse facets of lunar characteristics, encompassing terrain analysis, mineralogical composition, surface chemistry, atmospheric attributes, and crucially, the exploration for water and potential resource reservoirs.
• The propulsion module that carried the lander and rover configuration till 100 km lunar orbit also has a Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and Polari metric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, proposed to be launched by ISRO in 2023, will consists of:

1. Lunar rover

2. Lunar lander

3. Lunar Orbiter

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1 only

(b) 1 and 2 only

(c) 2 and 3 only

(d) 1,2 and 3

Answer