Will India’s Chandrayaan-3 successfully soft land on the South Pole of the Moon on August 23? Will it be the first country to land in an area where no nation has so far done?
This is the million dollar question across the world, especially in space circles with less than 24 hours left and the countdown begins for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to make its most complex manoeuvres succeed in what it describes as the ‘15 minutes of terror’.
For the 1.43 billion Indians, 5.27 pm on August 23 could well be one defining moment in its scientific history as Vikram, the Lander will make its descent onto the Lunar surface. Launched on July 14, from the Sriharikota SHAR Launch Pad, the Chandrayaan-3 has so far run its course in a textbook fashion. All the manoeuvres went off smoothly and the spacecraft is firmly in the Moon’s orbit.
So disappointing for all the scientists, engineers, and explorers to see Luna 25 crash. All eyes are now on India, attempting a south Moon landing in 3 days. @isro,” Chris Hadfield, a former Canadian astronaut wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The Russians, who surprised everyone by launching its Luna-25 mission on August 10/11 with an intent to land on August 21 and triggering a race, failed as the spacecraft went off track on August 19 itself and crashed.
According to Roskosmos, Russia’s official space corporation, it lost touch with the craft on Saturday at 11:57 GMT due to a glitch as the craft was shoved into pre-landing orbit. A soft landing had been planned for Monday. “The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon,”.
Will it be India’s day on the Moon?
The ISRO Chairman, Dr S Somnath exuded confidence that the ‘tough and challenging’ mission of landing on the South Pole side would be achieved this time. He said that all systems of Chandrayaan-3 are working perfectly and no contingencies are anticipated during landing. The health of Chandrayaan-3 will be continuously monitored.
The Indian Space Agency said the Chandrayaan-3 is set to land on the moon on the 23rd of August. The ISRO has announced a live broadcast of the event starting from 1720 hrs on Wednesday. India will be the fourth country in the world to land on the Moon after the United States, Russia, and China, but will be the only country to land on the lunar South Pole.
The most crucial operations of the descent in the 15 minutes are known as the initial preparation, velocity reduction, orientation change, altitude hold phase, fine braking, final descent, and touchdown. Then the Chandrayaan’s Vikram Lander and Pradhan, the Rover will be safely deployed on the lunar surface, ISRO scientists say.
In a morale booster move, the ISRO released images of the far side also known as the dark side (so-called since its always hidden from the Earth) in the South Pole region a day ahead of the targeted landing of the Chandrayaan-3 Lander ( Vikram) on the Moon.
These images were taken by the Lander Hazard Detection and Avoidance Camera, onboard the Lander. This camera plays a key role in identifying safe zones to ensure a smooth landing, says the ISRO.
The Chandrayaan-3 Mission was launched on the 14th of last month via the GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota.
The primary objectives of the Chandrayaan-3 mission are threefold, (a) to demonstrate a Safe and Soft Landing on Lunar Surface; (b) to demonstrate Rover roving on the moon, and (c) to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.
It may be recalled that in September 2019, after a nice lift-off in July and reaching the lunar orbit, Chandrayaan-2’s last and vital mission failed in the dying moments of its landing. Mission Control lost contact with Vikram, the lander which had crashed. However, the Orbiter, released earlier continues to function and send imagery. The ISRO has successfully established two-way communication between the Chandrayaan-3 Lander Module and the still-orbiting Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter.
Why the South Pole is important
The South Pole of the Moon is supposed to hold frozen water ( India has the distinction of discovering it during the Chandrayaan-1 probe) and some minerals. However, its hostile and difficult terrain makes it very tough to land. At least 3 serious attempts have failed -Israel and India in 2019 and now Russia.
If water and minerals are found it can be a great location to establish a lunar station that can be used as a stopover for planetary expeditions. Billionaire Jeff Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin has announced plans to set up a lunar station. It has bagged a contract from NASA to design, develop, test, and verify its Blue Moon lander to meet the US Space Agency’s human landing system requirements for recurring astronaut expeditions to the lunar surface, including docking with Gateway, a space station where crew transfer in lunar orbit.
The US wants to send humans by the end of 2024 under its Artemis Project being piloted by NASA and collaborated with several countries and companies. Therefore India’s success can open up many opportunities. India’s lander-Rover (Vikram) is expected to move around and send crucial information.
The American Space Agency, NASA has its sights set on the lunar South Pole area for the multi-billion dollar, Artemis era of human lunar exploration. Extreme, contrasting conditions make it a challenging location for Earthlings to land, live, and work, but the region’s unique characteristics hold promise for unprecedented deep space scientific discoveries that could help us learn about our place in the universe and venture farther into the solar system, the agency states on its website.
At the lunar South Pole, the Sun hovers below or just above the horizon, creating temperatures upwards of 130°F (54°C) during sunlit periods. Even during these periods of illumination, soaring mountains cast dark shadows and deep craters protect perpetual darkness in their abysses. Some of these craters are home to permanently shadowed regions that haven’t seen sunlight in billions of years and experience temperatures as low as -334°F (-203°C).
Breakthrough discoveries from robotic missions like LRO, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, and the SOFIA flying Observatory have confirmed that the Moon is not a bone-dry, dormant world. NASA’s Artemis I flight test will deploy two CubeSats to advance the search for lunar resources and a water-hunting rover, VIPER will be the first resource-mapping mission on another planetary body, NASA states.
The Moon is looked up to as the transit halt (base) for planetary missions, especially Mars in the near term by most of the space powers—US, China, Russia, and companies like Blue Origin and Space X of Elon Musk playing a huge role.
The success of India in the coming attempt and the results it can scoop up will play a major role in boosting these efforts.
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