The Chandrayaan-3 propulsion module, the third lunar mission launched by India, is getting very close to the moon, almost 22 days after it was launched into an elliptical orbit around the Earth atop the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) LVM-3 rocket. ISRO has announced that Chandrayaan-3 has successfully completed two-thirds of its journey to the moon.
The spacecraft has travelled over 2.6 lakh kilometres as of August 4, and Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) is slated for August 5 at around 7.00 pm IST. In this crucial stage, the spacecraft will begin its mission’s moon-centric phase by moving into the moon’s zone of influence.
The mission’s goal is to make a soft landing on the Moon’s surface as a follow-up to Chandrayaan-2, a project that was launched in 2019 but fell short of its goal. It was determined that Chandrayaan-2 had failed to achieve its primary mission goals.
The spacecraft is equipped with equipment for conducting research on the moon’s surface. LOI, a series of intricate manoeuvres carried out by the Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Network in Bengaluru over the course of the following 24 hours, will make sure that the module is drawn into the Moon’s gravitational field.
The LOI is an essential manoeuvre that modifies the spacecraft’s trajectory to place it in lunar orbit. It involves a strong burn that typically accelerates the spacecraft by using a chemical rocket engine. Due to the spacecraft’s increased velocity, its low-Earth orbit, which had previously been circular, is now very eccentric, allowing it to precisely target the moon as it rounds the Earth.
As the south pole of the moon is still mostly unexplored and has a bigger surface area that is permanently in shade than the north pole, it is possible that there is water in these constantly shadowed regions. Water was first found on the Moon by Chandrayaan-1 in 2008, near the south pole.
The space agency had previously stated that the spacecraft’s health was normal and that a soft landing on the moon would be performed on August 23. With Chandrayaan-3, India can join the US, China, and Russia as the fourth nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon’s surface and show that it is capable of a soft and safe landing.