Chandrayaan-3 touches down, India 1st to land spacecraft on lunar South Pole
The countdown for the descent of the spacecraft began on Tuesday as prayers were held in temples, mosques, and churches while schoolchildren waited for hours for the live screenings of the landing
Chandrayaan-3 lander touched down successfully on Wednesday, making India the fourth country globally to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon and the first on the lunar South Pole amid feverish anticipation and excitement.
The countdown for the descent began on Tuesday as prayers were held in temples, mosques, and churches while schoolchildren waited for hours for the live screenings of the landing across the country.
The touchdown of the lander module, Vikram, was planned as soon as the sun rose on the moon, four years after India’s second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, crashed on the surface of the moon in September 2019.
Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) analysed each contingency and rectified the errors of the last mission. It strengthened the craft’s hardware and software and prepared for worst-case scenarios via simulations besides making a backup plan.
Isro chairman S Somanath told Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who watched the landing from South Africa, that they have achieved the soft landing on the moon. “India is on the moon. I request our PM [Prime Minister] to address...”
Modi called the landing a historic moment and said it sounded bugle for a developed India. “...history has been made...Such historical events become part of the eternal consciousness of a nation’s life.”
Somanath on Tuesday said all stages of the mission went as per plan and that they were confident that Vikram would successfully land on the moon.
Chandrayaan-3’s lander was designed to identify its landing site after final checks. The site for the landing was increased to an area of 4km x 2.5km from the 500m x 500m that was planned for its predecessor.
Vikram’s legs were engineered to be stronger compared to the Chandrayaan-2 lander. The lander and rover will take pictures of each other to ensure communication between them, and Isro’s base station.
The indigenous lander module, propulsion module, and rover on Chandrayaan-3 seek to develop and demonstrate new technologies for interplanetary missions. The propulsion module separated from the craft will carry out independent experiments in the lunar orbit.
The rover will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility. Both the lander and the rover are equipped with scientific payloads to carry out experiments.
The experiments were expected to go on for 14 Earth days – one lunar day. The Isro chief on Monday told HT that there is a scope for extended life of the solar-powered equipment if it gets recharged after the next lunar sunrise.
Chandrayaan-2 could not make a soft landing on the moon. Officials said the mission was a “part failure”. But Chandrayaan-2’s orbiter has continued to orbit the moon and provided data that has helped Isro prepare for the latest mission.
A failure analysis report of the mission highlighted that the five engines, which were downsized to four for the latest mission, used for the reduction of velocity developed a higher thrust than intended.
The lander was to lose most of its velocity at a distance of 400m from the lunar surface and start hovering above the landing spot to ensure a soft vertical descent. But the high velocity led to the crash.
Isro built a sturdier spacecraft for Chandrayaan-3 with a higher fuel capacity to reduce the possibility of failure and to give the craft more flexibility to manoeuvre possible errors during landing.
Isro prepared for the best-case scenario of landing on Wednesday evening. Contingency plans in case the lander module is unable to reach the lunar surface were also made.
Isro aimed the landing in the initial period after the lunar sunrise so that the mission would get enough days to complete its experiments. The availability of sunlight is crucial to power the equipment.
Isro planned the mission in a way that the craft lands at the time of lunar sunrise to allow 14 Earth days for experiments as all modules on the craft are solar-powered.