Chandrayaan-3: India created a history on Wednesday as its Chandrayaan-3 mission successfully landed on the far side of the Moon's surface. By landing the Vikram Lander module on the Moon's south pole, India has become the first country to achieve this feat.
"India is on the Moon," said ISRO chief S Somanath as Chandrayaan 3 lander module Vikram successfully made a safe and soft landing on the Moon.
Addressing the country soon after Chandrayaan-3's landing, S Somanath said, "I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people behind this mission." He also introduced his team after the successful landing.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the ISRO team, its chief saying, "India's successful Moon mission is not just India's alone... this success belongs to all of humanity."
India is the first country to land on lunar south pole with Chandrayaan-3 mission.
How Chandrayaan-3 landed on Moon's south pole successfully
India’s Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander successfully set its four legs softly and safely on the lunar soil as planned, and became the fourth nation in the world to achieve the feat, but first to land on Moon's south pole.
The lander landed near the South Pole of the moon after travelling about 3.84 lakh km for over 40 days.
With the landing, a major portion of the Rs 600 crore Chandrayaan-3 mission has been realised. The remaining portion is the moon rover rolling down from the lander, moving around and doing the programmed experiments.
What does Chandrayaan-3 module consist?
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft comprises a propulsion module (weighing 2,148 kg), a lander (1,723.89 kg) and a rover (26 kg).
According to ISRO, the moon rover has Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of the landing site.
On its part, the lander too will carry out the tasks assigned to it with its payloads: Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature; Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) for measuring the seismicity around the landing site; Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate the plasma density and its variations. A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA is accommodated for lunar laser ranging studies.
Lander's mission life is 14 Earth days
The mission life of the lander and the rover is 1 Lunar day or 14 Earth days, ISRO said.
The propulsion module has Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and Polari metric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit.
The life of the payload carried by the propulsion module post ejection of the lander is between three and six months.
The 19 minutes of suspense and excitement began at 5.45 p.m., as planned earlier, and ended at 6.05 p.m. with the lander touching down on the lunar soil.
It may be recalled that the Vikram lander that was part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission a couple of years back had crashed on the moon while it was on the last phase of landing.
India waited with bated breath for Chandrayaan-3 landing
The soft landing is a tricky issue as it involves a series of complex manoeuvres consisting of rough and fine braking.
Imaging of the landing site region prior to landing will be done for finding safe and hazard-free zones.
The powered descent of the lander in a horizontal position began from an altitude of about 30 km at about 5.45 p.m. The automatic landing sequence got activated.
During the rough breaking phase the lander’s speed will be brought down from 1,680 metres per second to 358 metres per second. The altitude will be brought down 7.4 km above the moon.
The next phase was the altitude hold phase where the altitude was brought down to 6.8 km.
The officials seated at the Mission Operations Complex at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bengaluru, had their eyes glued to their monitors.
The lander’s position changed to vertical and the craft hovered 150 metres over the moon, taking pictures and surveying the landing zone to decide on a safe landing spot. Then the safe landing happened with two engines on out of the four.
The primary communication channel will be the Mission Operations Complex at ISTRAC, Bengaluru, to Chandrayaan-3 Propulsion Module which in turn would talk to the lander and the rover.
Recently, the moon lander established communication links with the Chandrayaan-2 mission’s Orbiter that is circling the moon since 2019 and thereby having a backup talking channel.
Meanwhile, the propulsion module of Chandrayaan-3 is continuing to go around the moon for some more period with its payload Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planetary Earth (SHAPE) doing its job.
The Chandrayaan-3 was put into orbit on July 14 in a copybook style by India's heavy lift rocket LVM3. The spacecraft completed orbiting around the Earth and headed towards the moon on August 1.
With inputs from IANS
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