A billion hearts beat for Chandrayaan today

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: ISRO's ambitious third Moon mission Chandrayaan-3's Lander Module (LM) is all set to land on the lunar surface on Wednesday evening, as India eyes to become the first country to reach the uncharted south pole of Earth's only natural satellite.

The LM comprising the lander (Vikram) and the rover (Pragyan), is scheduled to make a touch down near the south polar region of the Moon at 6:04 pm on Wednesday.

If the Chandrayaan-3 mission succeeds in making a touchdown on moon and in landing a robotic lunar rover in ISRO's second attempt in four years, India will become the fourth country to master the technology of soft-landing on the lunar surface after the US, China and the erstwhile Soviet Union.

Chandrayaan-2 had failed in its lunar phase when its lander 'Vikram' crashed into the surface of the Moon following anomalies in the braking system in the lander while attempting a touch down on September 7, 2019.

The soft-landing is being attempted days after Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the Moon after spinning out of control.

The critical process of soft-landing has been dubbed by many including ISRO officials as "17 minutes of terror", with the entire process being autonomous when the lander has to fire its engines at the right times and altitudes, use the right amount of fuel, and scan of the lunar surface for any obstacles or hills or craters before finally touching down.

ISRO Chairman S Somanath had recently said the most critical part of the landing will be the process of reducing the velocity of the lander from 30 km height to the final landing, and the ability to reorient the spacecraft from horizontal to vertical direction.

"This is the trick we have to play here," he said.

After the soft-landing, the rover will descend from the lander's belly, onto the Moon's surface, using one of its side panels, which will act as a ramp.

The lander and rover will have a mission life of one lunar day (about 14 earth days) to study the surroundings there.

The rover, after the softlanding, would ramp down of the lander module and study the surface of the moon through its payloads APXS - Alpha Particle XRay Spectrometer - to derive the chemical composition and infer mineralogical composition to further enhance understanding of the lunar surface.

In case of glitch, landing on Aug 27

A day before the scheduled touch-down, ISRO confirmed that the Chandrayaan-3 mission is on schedule.

ISRO's Space Applications Centre Director Nilesh Desai said, "If any health parameter (of the lander module) is found abnormal on August 23, then we will delay the landing by four days to August 27."