Next week, two probes will land on MonthMonth, several hundred kilometers apart. The first to land was the Russian Luna-25 probe this Monday. Two or three days later, it will be the turn of the Indian probe Chandrayaan-3, which is scheduled to land on the moon between August 23 and 24. These two missions are clearly not competing, but complementary. While the Russians will stay on the Moon for at least a year, the Indians will land small rovers there that are designed to travel about 500 meters, with a limited lifespan of just a few days.

From takeoff to landing on the moon: 42 day mission

Launched on July 14 from the Satish-Dhawan Space Center, Chandrayaan-3 arrived orbitorbit around the Moon on August 5. On August 17, the lander separated from its cruise stage and is now heading to its landing site. Several orbits around the moon will be required before the lander begins its descent to the lunar surface. The “moon landing” is scheduled for between August 23 and 24, near the South Pole, on the plain that lies between the craters Manzinus C and Simpelius N, about 70 degrees from LatitudeLatitude south. On August 16, the lander was in a nearly circular orbit around the Moon, with a perigeeperigee 153 kilometers away and a peakpeak 163 kilometers away.

While waiting for the landing, the Indian satellite captured many images of the Moon, both from the hidden and visible side. Two days ago,isroisro (Indian space agency) has posted a series of images of the far side of the Moon taken on August 15 and 17.

Article by Remy Decourt published on 08/08/2023

India, which arrived around the Moon a few days ago, is preparing to land on its surface on August 23. To mark the event, the probe obtained multiple snapshots of the surface. While these images are not impressive, they remind us that India could become the fourth country to successfully land on the moon, long before Europe.

Twenty days after launch, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft arrived in orbit around the Moon and entered it on 5 August. To celebrate this event, space probes sent us the first images of the lunar surface, although they were of no scientific interest.

India’s third month mission aims to make people forget the failure of the previous mission. In September 2019, Chandrayaan-2, with a small rover on board, crashed on the lunar surface in a plain between craters. Manzinus C And Simpelius Nabout 70 degrees south latitude.

Can India become the fourth country to land on the Moon?

India aspires to become the fourth country to land on the Moon after the former Soviet Union, United States and China, thus beating the Europeans. The Chandrayaan-3 probe aims to land on the Moon’s South Pole on August 23, at 12:17 p.m. UTCUTC.

To avoid a repeat of previous failures whose causes are known, the Indian Space Agency (Isro) made several modifications to the Chandrayaan-3 lander. Now weighs 1752 kg (incl massmass rover), nearly 300 kilos heavier than the mission Chandrayaan-2Chandrayaan-2. It was equipped with sturdier landing legs, larger solar panels, and had five motors instead of four. In addition, carrying more fuel and being able to land with a speedspeed higher impact. He computercomputer the board comes with a new trial algorithm.

The Pragyan rover, weighing 26 kilograms, will travel aboard the lander. It will be operational on the Moon a few days after its arrival. It would reach the Moon’s surface by simply descending the slope from the lander. Equipped with six wheels, the rover will survey the vicinity of the landing site and send, through Vikram, soil photo and analysis.

Unlike previous missions, Chandrayaan-3 doesn’t have an orbiter, but a propulsion module. Indeed, since the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is still functioning, Isro will use it for its communications needs with Earth.

An ambitious mission to the South Pole

Vikram brought with him four scientific instruments to study the thermal properties of the lunar surface, measuring changes in the local environment gasgas and plasma over time and measuring seismic activity at the landing site to characterize it CrustCrust And coatcoat underground. The fourth instrument is a reflectorreflector provided by NasaNasa possible telemetrytelemetry laser. This will be used to verify measurements of the distance to the Moon that are still being made by reflectors left on the Moon during the Apollo program.

As for the Pragyan explorer, bring two spectrometerspectrometer :LIBS similar to those on the board Mars explorerMars explorer from NASA (Curiosity and Perseverance), to determine the chemical composition and mineralogy of the surface, as well as a second spectrometer to determine the elemental composition of the surface, with a focus on detection magnesiummagnesiumfromaluminumaluminumfrom siliconsiliconfrom potassiumpotassiumfrom calciumcalciumfrom titaniumtitanium and iron.

The mission’s propulsion module has native instruments that will analyze Earth’s spectrum to produce data as if it were a exoplanetexoplanet.