Rama Krishna Sangem
The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has announced on July 6, Thursday that the Chandrayaan-3 mission will launch to the Moon on July 14. The spacecraft will lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 2:35 pm, Isro announced after transporting the spacecraft encapsulated aboard the rocket to the launchpad.
Chandrayaan-3 is the third installment of the Chandrayaan series and represents India’s second attempt to achieve a soft landing on the Moon’s surface. To date, only three countries have successfully landed spacecraft on the airless lunar world.
Equipped with a lander and a rover, the spacecraft will embark on a nearly two-month-long journey to the Moon. It will first be injected into lunar orbit before initiating the landing approach.
The Indian space agency has affirmed that the lander possesses the capability to softly land at a designated lunar site and deploy the rover. The rover will then conduct in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during its mobility.
Chandrayan -3 is estimated to cost around Rs 615 crore (77 million US dollars) as it has some modifications over Chandrayan -2 in 2019 September, that failed to have a proper landing of rover, Pragyan, on the moon, as planned by ISRO.. Still, the debris of Pragyan are there on the surface of the moon.
Chandrayan 3 crucial for ISRO
This Chandrayan -3 is crucial for ISRO for three reasons: One, it has to prove that India can send a satellite (or rover) to land on the moon. Two, showing the world, that India joined three other big countries – the US, Russia and China – which sent rovers to the moon surface till now.
Three, ISR should demonstrate to the world that it can conduct scientific explorations on the surface of the moon to study its soil, weather, and frozen water and ice etc. If ISRO succeeds, India will join the big league of nations of the Moon Club. India, is anyway, planning to send humans to the moon in coming years.
