Chandrayaan-3, Sanskrit for “Mooncraft,” was launched by India after a successful lunar orbital launch in 2008 and an unsuccessful lunar landing in 2019. India became the first country in the world to land on the south pole of the Moon when the Chandrayaan-3 lander module successfully landed on the Moon’s south pole at 6:04 PM IST on August 23, 2023, 40 days after departing from Earth at 69.367621°S and 32.348126°E. India is the fourth country to have set foot on the moon, following the United States, China, and Russia.
On Wednesday, two spacecraft, Vikram the lander and Pragyan the rover, landed in the southern polar area of the moon. India is just the fourth nation to have ever landed on the moon thanks to the two robots from the Chandrayaan-3 mission, which make it the first nation to have reached this region of the lunar surface intact.
The Chandrayaan-3 satellite was launched on July 14 by the LVM3 M4 rocket into its exact orbit from India’s primary spaceport in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. Since then, it has looped through ever wider-ranging orbits of the Earth, changed to a lunar orbit, and become a source of pride for the country and attention worldwide. On July 15, at ISTRAC/ISRO, Bengaluru, the first orbit-raising maneuver (Earthbound firing-1) was carried out successfully. Chandrayaan-3 was successfully sent into lunar orbit on August 5.
As anticipated, an orbit of 164 km by 18074 km was attained. On August 17, the Lander Module and Propulsion Module were successfully detached, and on August 18, deboosting was completed. Finally, on August 23, 2023, India created history when it successfully accomplished a soft landing on the south pole of the moon, becoming the first nation to do so.
The success of Chandrayaan-3 was largely due to the crucial components that Chakradhara Aerospace (CACPL) created for India’s moon mission. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to the country through video conference while attending the 15th BRICS Summit in South Africa after Chandrayaan-3’s safe and successful landing on the south pole of the moon.
Why, therefore, was this task so difficult? In 2019, India’s previous effort to make it to the lunar south pole was unsuccessful. The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter was successfully launched, but the lander and rover were lost in a crash not far from the landing site of the Chandrayaan-3. One of the challenges for a landing near the South Pole was rough terrain. ISRO experts said that the changes they made increased the likelihood that the current flight would land safely.
There is a system in place to increase the possible landing zone. The lander also has more fuel and stronger impact-resistant legs. And what about the mission’s importance? The uncharted south pole of the moon, which is expected to be a water-ice-rich area, has been successfully reached by the Chandrayaan-3 mission.
According to the ISRO website, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft will measure the near-surface plasma (ions and electrons) density and how it changes over time; measure the thermal properties of the lunar surface near the polar region; ensure seismicity around the landing site and delineate the structure of the lunar crust and mantle; derive the chemical composition and infer mineralogical composition to further our understanding of the lunar-surface; and finally, it will determine whether the lunar surface is made of ice or rock.
