India's Moon Mission Chandrayaan-3 Confirmed For Launch On July 14

BENGALURU: India's moon mission Chandrayaan-3 will be launched from Sriharikota on July 14 at 2:35 pm, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) confirmed on Thursday.

ISRO said in a tweet, "Announcing the launch of Chandrayaan-3: LVM3-M4/Chandrayaan-3 Mission: The launch is now scheduled for July 14, 2023, at 2:35 pm IST from SDSC (Satish Dhawan Space Centre), Sriharikota."

Secretary of the Department of Space and ISRO Chairman Somanath S told media persons that the space agency would attempt soft-landing of the lander on the lunar surface on August 23 or August 24. ISRO officials informed that the mission life of the lander is one lunar day, which is equal to 14 Earth days.

The date when the soft-landing will be done depends on the time of sunrise on the Moon. During the time of landing, it is essential that sunlight must be present. The officials informed that there is sunlight on the Moon for 14 to 15 days, followed by no sunlight for the next 14-15 days.

The Chandrayaan-3 is a succeeding mission to the earlier Chandrayaan-2, in a bid to demonstrate ISRO’s end-to-end capability in safely landing the craft and roving on the lunar surface. The configuration of the craft comprises a lander and rover.

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is carrying scientific instruments to study the thermo-physical properties of the lunar regolith, lunar seismicity, lunar surface plasma environment and elemental composition in the surrounding area of the landing site.

While the scope of these scientific instruments on the lander and the rover would be fitting with the theme of "Science of the Moon", an experimental instrument is expected to carry out a study on the spectro-polarimetric signatures of the Earth from the lunar orbit, according to ISRO officials.

The Chandrayaan-3 comprises an orbiter or the propulsion module, a lunar lander called Vikram, and a rover called Pragyan. The orbiter, or the propulsion module as the ISRO calls it, has a weight of 2,148 kg, and the lander, along with the rover, has a weight of 1,752 kg.

The moon- bound Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft completed the essential tests successfully in March this year. The tests validated its capability to cope with the harsh vibration and acoustic environment that the spacecraft would have to encounter during its launch.

Chandrayaan-3 will be launched atop the Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LMV-III) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The propulsion module will carry the lander and rover configuration till 100 km of the lunar orbit and separate it. Apart from this, the propulsion module also includes one scientific payload as a value addition, which will be operated post separation of the lander module.

The lander payloads includes 'Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment' to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature; 'Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity' for measuring the seismicity around the landing site; and 'Langmuir Probe' to estimate the plasma density and its variations. A passive Laser Retroreflector Array sourced from US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is also being accommodated for lunar laser ranging studies.

The lander will have the capability for a soft landing at a specified lunar site and then deploy the rover which will carry out on-site chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility.

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