Nation cheers launch of Chandrayaan-3
Chandrayaan-3 is an important Indian mission to the Moon's south pole to conduct soft landing and gather scientific data.
Chandrayaan-3 is India's third mission to the moon. The satellite will carry a lander and rover, which are main components of Chandrayaan-3.
The idea is to send the rover to the Moon and then, let it move autonomously from crater to crater – based on instructions from the Earth. The rover is fitted inside the lande...
Chandrayaan-3 will have three phases, the Earth-centric phase, the lunar transfer phase and the moon-centric phase.
The Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) spacecraft is a research module which was developed by the ESA and Lockheed Martin Space Systems.
The lunar orbit insertion, or LOI, will occur in an elliptical orbit whose size is 170 × 36,500 square kilometres. After this, Chandrayaan-3 will be separated from the launch vehicle
The rover is equipped with two payloads, which are the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS), and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS)
Vikram Lander, an Indian interplanetary probe consisting of an orbiter and lander, is equipped with four scientific instruments.
The height of the rocket is 43.5 metres, and it has a lift-off mass of 642 tonnes. The two strap-on motors carry solid fuel, and are solid rocket boosters.
The lander will touch down on the lunar surface with a horizontal velocity of less than 0.5 metre per second, a vertical velocity of less than 2 metres per second.