Chandrayaan-3 updates: Vikram Lander scheduled to make soft landing at 6.04pm tomorrow

• The Roscosmos had launched its Moon mission Luna 25 for the lunar south pole on August 11 reviving Soviet Union-era lunar exploration missions. The mission that aimed to study the composition of the lunar polar regolith (surface material) and the plasma and dust components of the lunar polar exosphere - was scheduled to attempt a soft landing on Moon on August 21, ahead of India's Chandrayaan 3-moon mission.

• On August 21, a preliminary analysis of the lunar mission suggested that a deviation between the actual and calculated parameters of the propulsion manoeuvre led to the spacecraft transitioning into an unintended orbit, resulting in its collision with the lunar surface and subsequent loss.

Timeline of significant developments in the Chandrayaan-3 mission so far:

• July 6: ISRO announces the launch date for Mission Chandrayaan-3 as July 14 from Sriharikota's second pad.

• July 7: Successful completion of vehicle electrical tests.

• July 11: Completion of a comprehensive 24-hour 'Launch Rehearsal' simulating the entire launch process.

• July 14: LVM3 M4 vehicle launches Chandrayaan-3 into its designated orbit.

• July 15: Successful execution of the first orbit-raising manoeuvre, achieving a 41762 km x 173 km orbit.

• July 17: Second orbit-raising maneuver places Chandrayaan-3 in a 41603 km x 226 km orbit.

• July 22: Fourth orbit-raising manoeuvre establishes the spacecraft in a 71351 km x 233 km orbit.

• July 25: Successful execution of another orbit-raising manoeuvre.

• August 1: Chandrayaan-3 inserted into translunar orbit (288 km x 369328 km).

• August 5: Successful lunar orbit insertion (164 km x 18074 km).

• August 6: Lowering of lunar orbit to 170 km x 4,313 km.

• August 9: ISRO carefully adjusts the spacecraft's path to achieve a lunar orbit of 174 km x 1437 km.

• August 14: Chandrayaan-3 approaches the moon's surface, reaching an orbit of 150 km x 177 km.

• August 16: The spacecraft performs its fifth and final Moon-bound manoeuvre, positioning itself in a near-circular Lunar orbit of 163 km x 153 km.

• August 17: Separation of the landing module, consisting of the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover, from its propulsion system.

• August 18: Successful completion of a 'deboosting' operation, reducing the orbit to 113 km x 157 km.

• August 20: Planned final orbit adjustment is undertaken to achieve an orbit of 134 km x 25 km, representing the farthest and nearest points from the moon respectively.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) came up with a latest upate Chandrayaan-3 mission that everything is going smooth till now and that the systems are undergoing regular checks.

"The mission is on schedule. Systems are undergoing regular checks. Smooth sailing is continuing. The Mission Operations Complex (MOX) is buzzed with energy & excitement! The live telecast of the landing operations at MOX/ISTRAC begins at 17:20 Hrs. IST on August 23, 2023.

Here are the images of the moon captured by the Lander Position Detection Camera (LPDC) from an altitude of about 70 km, on August 19, 2023.

LPDC images assist the Lander Module in determining its position (latitude and longitude) by matching them against an onboard moon reference map," ISRO wrote on X.

India's third lunar mission – Chandrayaan-3 – reaching Moon's south pole is being streamed live from 5:20 pm on Wednesday at:

• ISRO website: Click here or search- https://isro.gov.in

• ISRO official YouTube channel: Click here or search- https://youtube.com/watch?v=DLA_64yz8Ss

• ISRO official Facebook channel: Click here or search- https://facebook.com/ISRO

• DD National TV

Ahead of the Chandrayaan-3's soft landing tomorrow a Bengaluru-based Astronomer, Professor, Dr RC Kapoor says, "The Lander and the Rover are presently revolving in the pre-landing orbit around the Moon. These (Lander and Rover) have been prepared by examining the situation of the previous time. The algorithm has been made bug-free. Apart from this, the leg mechanism which is a major part of the Lander's design has also been made stronger." (ANI)

Ahead of the Chandrayaan-3's landing scheduled for tomorrow, people across the nation have been carrying out ‘havans’ praying that India should achieve a historic milestone.

• Uttar Pradesh: People from Agra district performed puja on Monday for Chandrayaan-3's successful landing on Moon.

• Madhya Pradesh: People in the capital city of Bhopal were also seen performing ‘havan’ praying for Chandrayaan-3's success.

(With PTI inputs)

• More than any other part of the Moon, global nations, along with India, are eager to explore the 'south pole' region, which has been a challenging task to achieve. However, space missions so far have indicated that there is a possibility that humans can survive in this lunar region, as water (H2O) molecules have been discovered.

• India's first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 discovered the presence of hydroxyl (OH) and water (H2O) molecules on the lunar surface.

Political leaders – those in the Opposition – apparently “do not want to politicise” the Chandrayaan 3 mission, which is on its way to make history with a safe landing on the Moon and ground exploration.

Talking on Chandrayaan 3 mission, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut says, "It is a very big thing for the country. Politics should not happen on this. For years our scientists have worked extremely hard on this project. They deserve all the appreciation...Be it Congress or BJP govt, our duty is to support them (scientists)."

Film stars are also excited about Chandrayaan-3's historic landing on Moon for which they are thanking ISRO and saying that they are awaiting the moment. 

• Kareena Kapoor on Monday said, “It's a great moment for India and a proud moment for every Indian. All of us are waiting to watch it. I'm going to do that with my boys.”

• Meanwhile, Anupam Kher took to X on Tusday to share his excitement about tomorrow's landing. He wrote, “Dear scientist, staff, technicians and everyone at @isro! 140 crore Indians in India and millions of Indians all over the world are already looking up at the #Moon with prayers in their hearts and hope in their eyes for #Chandrayaan_3 to proudly land. Thanks in advance for giving us a great reason to celebrate what it means to be an Indian. Touch wood! Thu thu! Jai Ho! Tomorrow around 6.03pm I will scream my guts out- JAI HIND!!”

• After Chandrayaan-2 faced a failure for a soft landing on Moon in 2019, ISRO officials this time has planned a better version – Chandrayaan-3 –  of it with all the steps that were carried out so far in place leading to a safer landing on Moon this time.

• However, the ISRO team said that the planned landing may get postponed if there are conditions “unfavourable” and the backup date has been fixed as August 27.

ISRO on Sunday released a message about livestreaming Chandrayaan-3's ‘soft landing’ on Moon. It reads as,

"India's pursuit of space exploration reaches a remarkable milestone with the impending Chandrayaan-3 Mission, poised to achieve a soft landing on the lunar surface. This achievement marks a significant step forward for Indian Science, Engineering, Technology, and Industry, symbolising our nation's progress in space exploration.

This eagerly anticipated event will be broadcasted live on August 23, 2023, starting from 17:20 Hrs. IST. The live coverage will be available via multiple platforms, including the ISRO Website , YouTube, ISRO's Facebook page , and DD National TV channel."

Chandrayaan-3 will attempt touchdown on August 23 at around 6:00pm. People are undertaking pooja, praying for the success of the third lunar mission.

The European Space Agency will help in providing tracking support as Vikram Lander attempts the soft landing.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement to Reuters that the U.S. space agency was "looking forward" to what would be learned from the Indian mission.

Also read: NASA Chief Bill Nelson ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 launch

Chandrayaan-3 will be manoeuvred into a vertical position through a series of steps, aiming for a safe lunar landing. This step is vital due to ISRO's previous failure to successfully land its lander on the Moon's surface in the Chandrayaan-2 mission.

“The ability to transfer from horizontal to vertical direction is the trick we have to play here. Here only we had the problem last time,” ISRO Chief S Somanath said.

Read our detailed copy: Why Chandrayaan-2 failed?

Chandrayaan-3 has to decrease its speed from about 1.68km/s (6,048km/hr) horizontally, changing direction to make the craft vertical and finally bringing it to zero after making a soft landing on the lunar surface, “this is the most critical task,” said the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chief S Somanath. The lander's touchdown test limit is only ≤ 3.0 m/sec (10.8km/hr) vertical velocity.

Read our detailed copy on Chandrayaan 3's biggest challenge

• Chandrayaan-3's Lander Module established two-way communication with the orbiter of the already present Chandrayaan-2 orbiter around the Moon, as it embarks on the historic “soft-landing” on the lunar surface, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

• Chandrayaan-2 is the previous edition of India's lunar mission which was launched in 2019, whose lander however lost the communication even after the successful orbit and de-orbit manoeuvers towards the Moon.

• Chandrayaan-3 was launched on July 14 this year, in a LVM3 M4 vehicle towards Moon, and the first orbit-raising maneuver (Earthbound firing-1) successfully performed on July 15.

• Then the major five manoeuvres around the moon were completed on August 16 after which the Propulsion Module and Lander Module were seperated on August 17.

• On August 18, deboosting process was successfully completed bring Lander Module to a distance of 113 km from the Moon's surface. 

• Following a soft landing on Wednesday, the lander Vikram and rover Pragyan of the Lander Module will explore the surface of the Moon in south pole for about 14- Earth days which is just one-lunar day. 

• Currently the Lander Module of Chandrayaan-3 is trying ot spot a perfect landing site on the lunar surface which will lead to a historic landing on the unexplored side of the Moon.

• Lander Vikram is moving closer to Moon and is all set for a soft landing on Wednesday at 6.04 pm. Payloads will then be deployed on to the Moon's surface to measuring temperature and thermal conductivity, to measure seismic activity and other explorations.

• Meanwhile, rover Pragyan will also have payloads to determine the elements in the landing site's vicinity.

• Amid high expectations of Chandrayaan-3's soft landing on the Moon's surface, news agency ANI quoted an ISRO official on Tuesday, saying that a “crash landing” is likely when the speed of the lander is not controlled. As it goes down to touch the lunar surface, the reduction of speed plays an important role along with the consideration of Moon's gravitational force.

•"The lander will try to land on the Moon's surface from a height of 30 km on August 23, and its velocity at that time will be 1.68 km/sec. Our focus will be on reducing that speed because Moon's gravitational force will also play its part. If we don't control that speed, there will be chances of crash landing. If any health parameter (of the lander module) is found abnormal on August 23, then we will postpone the landing to August 27," says Nilesh Desai, Director of Space Applications Centre-ISRO said.

• Lander Vikram: Payloads here are Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) for measuring temperature and thermal conductivity. Another payload, the Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA), will measure seismic activity around the landing site. The Langmuir Probe (LP) will estimate plasma density and changes. A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA will be used for lunar laser studies.

• Rover Pragyan: Payloads here are an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and a Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) to determine the elements in the landing site's vicinity.

Chandrayaan-3 Live Updates: We are all eagerly waiting to witness the touchdown on the Moon's surface which will make a history in terms of India's space exploration dreams. Know about the actual motive behind this mission by ISRO:

• To demonstrate Safe and Soft Landing on Lunar Surfac

• To demonstrate Rover roving on the moon and

• To conduct in-situ scientific experiments