CHANDRAYAN 3 - SCI & TECH
News:
Chandrayaan-3 | Lander Vikram, rover Pragyan to return for another tryst with
the moon
What's in the news?
● The
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) plans to retain the names of the
Chandrayaan-2 lander and rover for their Chandrayaan-3 equivalents as well.
● This
means, the Chandrayaan-3 lander will bear the name ‘Vikram’ (after Vikram
Sarabhai, the father of the Indian space programme) and the rover, ‘Pragyan’.
Key takeaways:
● Chandrayaan-3
lander, rover named after those in the previous mission; India’s third moon
exploration mission slated for mid-July launch.
Chandrayaan-3:
● Chandrayaan-3
is India’s third moon mission and is
a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar
surface (No orbiter).
Aim:
● The
mission aims to land a lander on the Lunar South
Pole.
Launch Vehicle:
● ISRO’s
plans to launch the third moon mission in mid-July aboard the Launch Vehicle Mark 3 - LVM3 (formerly
GSLV Mk-III) rocket from Sriharikota.
Modules:
Chandrayaan-3
interplanetary mission has three major modules such as
1. Propulsion module:
● A
propulsion module will carry the lander-rover configuration to a 100-km lunar orbit.
2. Lander module:
● The
lander will have four payloads —
Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA), Chandra’s Surface Thermo
physical Experiment (ChaSTE),
Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity
(ILSA) and the LASER Retroreflector Array (LRA).
3. Rover:
● The
six-wheeled rover will have two payloads
— the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS)
and the LASER Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS).
In
addition to these, there will be one payload on the propulsion module, the Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet
Earth (SHAPE).
Other features:
● The
mission’s complexity calls for establishing radio-frequency (RF) communication
links between the modules.
● Once
the ‘Vikram’ lander module makes it safely to the moon, it will deploy
‘Pragyan’ ‘‘which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface
during the course of its mobility".
Lunar South Pole:
● The
lunar South Pole is one of the most compelling places in the entire Solar
System.
● The
towering massifs (mountains) of the South
Pole-Aitken Basin can be accessed, and these massifs contain impact melt
that will allow scientists to unambiguously determine the age of this huge
basin and could provide insights into planetary formation.
● Permanently shadowed
craters may harbour reservoirs of ices and other
volatile compounds that could serve as a tremendously valuable resource for
future explorers.
● Additionally,
these volatile deposits could
contain a priceless record of water
composition dating back to the beginning of our solar system, an
incomparable dataset for astrobiology investigations.
● A
few mountain peaks near the pole are
illuminated for extended periods of time, which could provide near-constant
solar power for a permanent lunar outpost sometime in the far future.
● In
addition, the South Pole region has craters that are cold traps and contain a fossil record of the early solar
system.
Significance:
● Chandrayaan
3, if successful, will make India the fourth
country to soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon after the United States, USSR
and China.