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Ahead of Moon landing, ISRO shares pics captured by Chandrayaan-3 lander
The images clearly shows Moon's craters Aristarchus, Eddington and Pythagoras along with one of the dark plains on the lunar surface Oceanus Procellarum.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday shared a set of fresh images of Moon and Earth taken from Chandrayaan-3 mission's indigenous lander module, named Vikram. Only a fortnight is remaining before the Chandrayaan-3 makes a soft-landing on the lunar surface. The spacecraft entered into the Moon's orbit on August 5. It is expected to land on Moon on August 23.
The images clearly shows Moon's craters Aristarchus, Eddington and Pythagoras along with one of the dark plains on the lunar surface Oceanus Procellarum. Also, another image where the Earth is shown from a distance, as viewed by the lander imager camera on July 14, the day when the country's third unmanned Moon lander mission was launched.
The Chandrayaan-3 propeller will perform multiple de-orbiting manoeuvers in order to take it closer to the Moon and allow Vikram to land on lunar surface.
ISRO chief S Somanath earlier said the propulsion module will ‘debsoost’, a mechanism to ensure soft landing of lander.
"If everything fails, if all the sensors fail, nothing works, still it (Vikram) will make a landing. That's how it has been designed - provided that the propulsion system works well," he told news agency PTI.
These de-orbiting manoeuvres will be performed on August 9, August 14, and August 16 till its orbit reduces to 100 kmx100 km from the Moon, according to Somanath.
