Jakarta –
The Indian space agency released the first images of the Moon taken by Chandrayaan-3, after the spacecraft entered the Moon’s orbit on Saturday (05/08).
The images show the craters on the Moon’s surface getting bigger as the spacecraft gets closer.
Chandrayaan-3, equipped with an orbiter, lander and rover, will land on the lunar surface on August 23, 2023.
If successful, India will be the first country to land near the little-explored south pole of the Moon.
If successful, the mission will be the fourth lunar landing mission after the US, the former Soviet Union and China.
After orbiting the Earth for about 10 days, the probe was sent into translunar orbit last Tuesday (01/08) and successfully pushed into lunar orbit on Saturday (05/08).
The Indian Space Research Agency (Isro) said in a press release that they had monitored the “health” of Chandrayaan-3 and his condition was “normal”.
This development also indicates that “this is the third time in a row that Isro has successfully propelled a spacecraft into lunar orbit”.
Scientists say Chandrayaan-3, which is India’s third lunar program, is expected to boost the success of previous lunar missions.
The mission comes 13 years after the country’s first mission to the Moon in 2008, which found the presence of water molecules on the dry lunar surface and established that the Moon has an atmosphere during the day.
Chandrayaan-2 was launched in July 2019, but was only partially successful.
The orbiter continues to circle and study the Moon even today, but the lander and rover failed to make a smooth landing and crashed on landing.
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The head of the Indian Space Research Organization (Isro), Sreedhara Panicker Somanath, said they had carefully studied the crash data and carried out a simulation exercise to correct the disturbance on Chandrayaan-3, which weighs 3,900 kg and cost 6.1 billion rupees or around IDR 1.1 trillion.
Lander (named Vikram) weighs about 1,500 kg and carries a 26 kg explorer in its named stomach Pragyaanfrom Sanskrit which means wisdom.
By now, the craft has entered lunar orbit, and scientists will begin to gradually reduce the rocket’s speed to bring it to a point where Vikram can land smoothly.
“A series of maneuvers have been planned to gradually reduce the spacecraft’s orbit and position it above the lunar poles,” Isro said.
“After several maneuvers, the propulsion module will separate from the lander while in orbit. Then a series of complex braking maneuvers will be performed to facilitate a soft landing in the South Pole region of the Moon on August 23,” he added.
After landing, the six-wheeled rover will get out and wander around the rocks and craters on the Moon’s surface, gathering important data and images to send back to Earth for analysis.
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“The rover is carrying five instruments that will focus on finding out about the physical characteristics of the Moon’s surface, the atmosphere close to the Moon’s surface, and tectonic activity to study what is happening beneath the surface. I hope we will discover something new,” said Somanath.
The Moon’s south pole remains largely unexplored – the surface area that remains in the shadow is much larger than the Moon’s north pole, and scientists say that means there is likely water in that area.
India isn’t the only country eyeing the Moon – there is growing global interest in it.
And scientists say there is still much to understand about the Moon, which is often described as the gateway to outer space.
See also Video ‘Shenzhou-14 Astronaut Completes Outer Space Activities Mission’:
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2023-08-08 02:21:01
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