Sriharikota: India’s Chandrayaan-3 successfully took off at 2.35 pm today from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, carrying the aspirations of an entire nation. If the mission is successful, India will become the fourth country to land on the moon.
Chandrayaan-3 aims to demonstrate India’s capability for safe and gentle lunar landings, joining the ranks of the United States, China, and Russia. It consists of a lander, a rover, and a propulsion module with a total weight of approximately 3,900 kilograms.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his belief that this remarkable mission holds the hopes and dreams of our nation.
The moon lander Vikram is positioned on a GSLV Mark 3 heavy-lift launch vehicle, also known as the Bahubali rocket. Standing at a height of 43.5 meters, the GSLV is half the size of Delhi’s Qutb Minar. The journey to the moon is anticipated to take over 40 days, with an expected touchdown in August.
Distinguishing itself from previous missions, India’s mooncraft will land at the South Pole of the moon, where water molecules have been discovered. This surprising finding was made during India’s initial moon mission in 2008.
Vikram’s objective is to achieve a secure and gentle landing. Subsequently, the rover Pragyan will be deployed to explore the moon’s surface for a lunar day, equivalent to 14 earth days, and conduct scientific experiments.
ISRO has implemented lessons learned from the previous moon mission, including reducing the number of engines on the lander from five to four and updating the software. The entire system has undergone rigorous testing.
To ensure the mission’s success even in the face of potential failures, various scenarios such as sensor failure, engine failure, algorithm failure, and calculation failure were thoroughly examined. Corresponding countermeasures have been developed to overcome these challenges.
