assignment on chandrayaan 3

Chandrayaan 3 Essay in English for School Students

Essay on chandrayaan 3 for school students: check here 100, 200 words essay on india's latest moon mission chandrayaan 3. students can also use this as a short speech for school assemblies or speech competitions. they, can also check the latest chandrayaan 3 updates to easily edit elements and elongate their essay as per their requirement..

Chandrayaan 3 Essay and Short Speech in English for School Students: Chandrayaan-3, which marked India's historic achievement as the first country to land near the lunar South Pole, has been honoured with the prestigious World Space Award by the International Astronautical Federation. The award ceremony will take place on October 14 during the opening ceremony of the 75th International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy.

Chandrayaan 3 was a gigantic success for India and now its Pragyaan rover has gone to sleep. To commemorate Chandrayaan 3 triumph and the soft landing of Vikram lander on the moon, National Space Day will be celebrated on August 23 every year as announced by PM Modi. Every Indian is proud of the soft landing of Chandrayaan 3 on the moon! In the latest update by ISRO, the propulsion module of Chandrayaan 3 has been brought back into the Earth's orbit.

As per ISRO's other update, t he Rover had completed its assignments and was parked and set into Sleep mode. The Chandrayaan 3 Rover Pragyaan had ramped down from the Lander a while after its landing on August 23rd. Pragyan rover was continuously walking on the moon and sending various details to the ISRO centre.

Related:  Chandrayaan 3: Will Pragyan Rover Wake Up Again? ALL You Need To Know 

In the vast space of our universe, where mythology and science come together so often, Chandrayaan-3 shines brightly as a symbol of India’s astral hope and exploration. It shows India's strong determination to uncover the moon's mysteries. With careful planning and robust designs, Chandrayaan-3 has gotten us closer to landing on the moon and discovering its hidden secrets. In this article, we have provided an essay on Chandrayaan in about 100 and 200 words that you refer for the 1st National Space Day 2024. Students can easily refer to this essay and come up with their own modifications and tweaks in the essay body. 

Chandrayaan 3 Essay in English

On the occasion of National Science Day 2024, which is planned to be celebrated on August 23, schools are supposed to organise events to motivate students towards the bright future in science and its role in elvating society and nation's pride.

Chandrayaan-3: India's Latest Lunar Mission

• चंद्रयान 3 पर हिंदी निबंध और भाषण: Chandrayaan 3 Essay in Hindi for School Students
• National Space Day Essay in Hindi
• National Space Day 2024: CBSE Guidelines and Activities For Schools

Chandrayaan 3 Details

Latest Updates and Information About Chandrayaan 3

• August 2024:  Central Government annouced August 23 as the NATIONAL SPACE DAY to hounour the landmark achievement of Chandrayaan 3.
• January 22, 2024

NASA Spacecraft Pings India’s Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon:

• September 22, 2023

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Efforts have been made to establish communication with the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover to ascertain their wake-up condition. As of now, no signals have been received from them. Efforts to establish contact will continue. — ISRO (@isro) September 22, 2023

• September 5, 2023

. @NASA 's LRO spacecraft recently imaged the Chandrayaan-3 lander on the Moon’s surface. The ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) Chandrayaan-3 touched down on Aug. 23, 2023, about 600 kilometers from the Moon’s South Pole. MORE >> https://t.co/phmOblRlGO pic.twitter.com/CyhFrnvTjT — NASA Marshall (@NASA_Marshall) September 5, 2023

• September 2, 2023

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: The Rover completed its assignments. It is now safely parked and set into Sleep mode. APXS and LIBS payloads are turned off. Data from these payloads is transmitted to the Earth via the Lander. Currently, the battery is fully charged. The solar panel is… — ISRO (@isro) September 2, 2023

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: In-situ scientific experiments continue ..... Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) instrument onboard the Rover unambiguously confirms the presence of Sulphur (S) in the lunar surface near the south pole, through first-ever in-situ measurements.… pic.twitter.com/vDQmByWcSL — ISRO (@isro) August 29, 2023

• August 26, 2023: National Space Day on August 23rd, Announced by PM Modi to mark the success of Chandrayaan 3 on the moon.
• Chandrayaan 3 touchdown point on the moon will now be known as Shivshakti.
• Chandrayaan 2 touchdown point on the moon's surface will now be known as Tiranga Point.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Here are the first observations from the ChaSTE payload onboard Vikram Lander. ChaSTE (Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment) measures the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the pole, to understand the thermal behaviour of the moon's… pic.twitter.com/VZ1cjWHTnd — ISRO (@isro) August 27, 2023

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: All planned Rover movements have been verified. The Rover has successfully traversed a distance of about 8 meters. Rover payloads LIBS and APXS are turned ON. All payloads on the propulsion module, lander module, and rover are performing nominally.… — ISRO (@isro) August 25, 2023

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Chandrayaan-3 ROVER: Made in India 🇮🇳 Made for the MOON🌖! The Ch-3 Rover ramped down from the Lander and India took a walk on the moon ! More updates soon. #Chandrayaan_3 #Ch3 — ISRO (@isro) August 24, 2023

• August 23, 2023: India's lunar mission Chandrayaan 3 has successfully landed on the south pole of the moon.
• August 20, 2023: The Lander Module is in 25 km x 134 km orbit. Powered descent is expected to commence on August 23, 2023, around 1745 Hrs. IST
• August 19, 2023: The Lander Module is in 113 km x 157 km orbit around the moon. Second de-boosting is planned for August 20, 2023
• August 17, 2023: Lander Module is successfully separated from the Propulsion Module. Deboosting planned for August 18, 2023
• August 16, 2023: The spacecraft is in an orbit of 153 km x 163 km after the firing on August 16, 2023
• August 14, 2023: The mission is in the orbit circularisation phase. The spacecraft is in 151 km x 179 km orbit
• August 09, 2023: Chandrayaan-3's orbit is reduced to 174 km x 1437 km following a manoeuvre performed on August 9, 2023
• July 06, 2023: The launch is scheduled for July 14, 2023, at 14:35 Hrs. IST from the Second Launch Pad, SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota

Chandrayaan History - Chandrayaan 1, 2 and 3

Is Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed on moon?

Yes, Chandrayaan 3 has successfully made a successful landing on the Southern pole of the Moon.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: 'India🇮🇳, I reached my destination and you too!' : Chandrayaan-3 Chandrayaan-3 has successfully soft-landed on the moon 🌖!. Congratulations, India🇮🇳! #Chandrayaan_3 #Ch3 — ISRO (@isro) August 23, 2023

Chandrayaan 3 Photos and Videos

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: 🔍What's new here? Pragyan rover roams around Shiv Shakti Point in pursuit of lunar secrets at the South Pole 🌗! pic.twitter.com/1g5gQsgrjM — ISRO (@isro) August 26, 2023

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Explained: Key Findings From Chandrayaan-3's Moon Landing

• Published On: August 25, 2024

ISRO achieved a significant milestone through the remarkable success of Chandrayaan-3. Almost a year after Chandrayaan-3 landed on the Moon, Indian scientists have shared their findings. These findings come from one of the rover's key instruments and reveal new details about the moon's surface that can impact future space missions.

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August 23, 2023

Chandrayaan-3 Makes Historic Touchdown on the Moon

The successful lunar landing of the Chandrayaan-3 mission makes India only the fourth country to achieve the feat

By Jatan Mehta

Onlookers wave Indian flags while watching the launch of the nation’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission.

R.SATISH BABU/AFP via Getty Images

BENGALURU, India—Quiet moments of nail-biting tension gave way to cheers of joy in the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) mission control center as the space agency sent its lunar lander—and India—into the annals of history. On August 23 at 12:33 P.M. UTC India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission’s robotic lander, named Vikram, touched down on the moon near its south pole. Launched on July 14, Chandrayaan-3 was the result of ISRO doubling down on its bet on lunar landing after the unfortunate crash of its Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019. With the spacecraft now safely on the moon, ISRO’s efforts have paid off, and India has become the fourth country to achieve a soft lunar landing, following the former Soviet Union, the U.S. and China.

Chandrayaan-3’s entire lunar descent had to be fully autonomous. During this crucial stage of the mission, signals take about three seconds to go from the lander to Earth and back again—a delay too long for earthbound ISRO engineers to reliably guide the landing. So Vikram’s task was to reduce its high orbital velocity to zero such that it would stay as close to its intended trajectory as possible, all the way until a safe touchdown. To do so, it needed to orchestrate the firing of its engines based on continuous measurements of distance, velocity and orientation.

To stick the landing this time around, ISRO built far more redundancies and safeguards into Chandrayaan-3 than it had for Chandrayaan-2. In an August 5 talk detailing these changes, ISRO’s chief S. Somanath emphasized how Chandrayaan-3 carried more fuel and a better guidance, navigation and control system to correct even major deviations from the intended paths. “There were improvements to 21 subsystems for Chandrayaan-3. These changes have been reinforced by numerous helicopter- and crane-based ground tests,” says Nilesh Desai , director of ISRO’s Space Applications Center (SAC) in Ahmedabad, India.

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Evidently, these improvements have culminated in the triumphant touchdown of Chandrayaan-3. This success wasn’t a given, especially when considering that four out of the previous six lunar landing attempts within the past five years have failed. The latest failure occurred on August 19, when Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft misfired its engines and crashed into the moon —a brutal reminder that getting to the lunar surface in one piece remains risky. Luna-25 thus joins the ruins of the Israel-based company SpaceIL’s Beresheet , India’s Chandrayaan-2 and the private Japanese firm ispace’s Hakuto-R spacecraft. Thankfully, at least Chandrayaan-3’s outcome has instead followed those of China’s Chang’e 4 and Chang’e 5 landers, the only other recent successes.

“We now have a tremendous responsibility to inspire India and the world at levels no less than this landing,” said Sankaran Muthusamy, director of the U. R. Rao Satellite Center (URSC), the ISRO center that led the construction and integration of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft and mission.

How Chandrayaan-3 Made It to the Moon

Chandrayaan-3’s about 19-minute-long lunar descent comprised four major phases. The first, the “rough braking” phase, began when the spacecraft was 30 kilometers above the moon in its orbit and about 750 km downrange from its landing site. By firing all of its four 800-newton main engines for about 12 minutes until it was at a 7-km altitude, Chandrayaan-3 reduced its high horizontal velocity of about 1.7 kilometers per second by some 80 percent.

Next came a brief but crucial 10-second “attitude hold” phase, wherein the lander stabilized itself using its eight smaller thrusters to gain a steady view of the looming lunar surface for its various landing sensors .

For height measurements, Chandrayaan-3 relied on two altimeters, one using lasers and the other using microwaves. While laser altimeters are commonly employed by several lunar landers, they can report anomalous heights at times if, say, a lander passes over mountainous terrain or large craters. “Instead the microwave altimeter’s wider footprint allowed Chandrayaan-3 to better tolerate abrupt changes in altitude,” explains Priyanka Mehrotra of SAC, who is lead system designer of Chandrayaan-3’s Ka-Band microwave altimeter.

Where Past Landings Faltered

Chandrayaan-3’s redundant altimetry is especially pertinent because of the role laser altimetry played during the failed April 25 touchdown of ispace’s first lunar lander . As that lander passed over the rim of the Atlas Crater to approach the target landing site that lay within, its laser altimeter correctly reported an increased elevation of roughly 3 km, corresponding to the crater’s depth. But onboard software designed to filter out certain abrupt values to keep the ispace lander’s motion stable rejected the measurement as erroneous. The Japanese lander, thinking it was closer to the surface than it really was, continued decelerating slowly until it ran out of fuel and fell to a ruinous crash landing.

It was during the attitude hold phase that Chandrayaan-2 faltered. Its engines provided a slightly greater thrust than expected because of an inadequately functioning thrust control valve, which accumulated navigation errors over time. ISRO had designed the onboard computer to correct such “off-nominal” paths only after the attitude hold phase ended. But the deviation quickly grew to be so large that the lander couldn’t correct it in time despite its ability to throttle its thrust.

In response, ISRO ensured that Chandrayaan-3 could determine and correct such deviations from its intended trajectory far faster than its failed predecessor. Chandrayaan-3’s lander also used a new instrument called a laser doppler velocimeter (LDV) to navigate more precisely in the first place. “While there are other ways for a lunar lander to measure its velocity, an LDV provides a direct measurement of velocity with respect to the ground, which allows a lander to greatly reduce accumulation of navigation errors,” says William Coogan , lunar lander chief engineer at Firefly Aerospace, a private company that has partnered with NASA via the space agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to deliver science and technology payloads to the moon in 2024 and 2026 ,.

A Fine Hover or Two

After its fraught attitude hold phase, Chandrayaan-3 entered a three-minute “fine braking” phase in which it used only two of its four main engines to descend up to roughly 850 meters above the moon’s surface and briefly hover there. This pause gave the lander a chance to capture pictures of the surface and compare them to preloaded onboard satellite images to determine whether it was above its desired landing region.

“Chandrayaan-3’s target landing zone spans four by 2.5 kilometers. ISRO scientists and engineers divided it into 3,900 equal-sized subsections, meticulously assessed the safety level of each for a landing and loaded it into the lander as reference information,” Desai says. At this point, Chandrayaan-3 must have taken one of these two decisions: If it found itself above this predetermined landing zone, the onboard computer would have identified the safest feasible subsection area, then accordingly proceeded toward touchdown. If Chandrayaan 3 found itself elsewhere, it would have proceeded with an autonomous landing based on self-identified hazards from its imagery instead of the preprogrammed subsection-based landing. Confirmation of which decision was taken will be known after ISRO determines the landing site.

In the final “terminal descent” phase, Chandrayaan-3 lowered itself to about 150 meters above the surface and then hovered again for about half a minute to assess the area below for landing hazards. At this point, since the surface right below the lander didn’t look safe, the lander sought a safer adjacent area and deviated to touchdown there.

“The processing system for hazard avoidance was sped up for Chandrayaan-3 to make the lander’s decision-making during the critical final phases significantly faster than Chandrayaan-2,” says Rinku Agrawal of SAC, who led the team that developed the processing unit of the hazard detection and avoidance system.

“Hazard detection and avoidance allows for a critical divert maneuver if needed during the final moments to ensure a safe touchdown,” says Ander Solorzano , flight director of aerospace company Astrobotic Technology’s first moon landing mission, which will carry NASA CLPS and international payloads.

Finally, on touchdown, sensors on the lander’s legs triggered the shutdown of its main engines. Chandrayaan-3 now stands tall on the moon.

ISRO designed the lander’s legs to absorb most of the mechanical shock from the touchdown. The agency tested the legs on lunar simulant test beds on Earth to ensure that the lander could tolerate a high vertical velocity of three meters per second—and even a horizontal velocity of one meter per second if it were to touch down askew.

“The touchdown was smooth; the vertical velocity was notably less than even the nominal upper bound of 2 meters per second,” said ISRO chief S. Somanath in a post-landing press event.

Chandrayaan-3 landed near the lunar south pole shortly after local sunrise. Doing so maximizes the mission’s surface operations lifetime to an entire period of lunar daylight (14 Earth days) because the lander and the rover it will deploy are both solar-powered. To begin Chandrayaan-3’s surface science mission , Vikram will activate its four onboard instruments and deploy the rover via a ramp to start exploring the geologically rich landing region .

India’s Next Moonshot

Chandrayaan-3 feeds into the global frenzy of sending hardware to the moon, particularly to its south pole. The U.S.’s upcoming Artemis crewed missions, China’s Chang’e robotic craft and the majority of other governmental as well as private endeavors (such as those under NASA’s CLPS program) plan to explore this valuable lunar region. They eventually aim to extract its water ice and other resources to sustain long-duration missions and perhaps even to commercialize aspects of such operations.

It was thus quite the timing when, on June 21, India signed the Artemis Accords , a U.S.-led framework for cooperative lunar exploration. As a signatory, India can now accelerate its lunar endeavors by better collaborating with the U.S. and other signatory nations. Astrobotic CEO John Thornton says, “I’m encouraged by India’s signing of the accords. It’s certainly a signal for extended partnerships and co-developments between the two countries. The more we can do that as a species, the better chance we have of succeeding together.”

For its next moon mission—targeting launch before the end of this decade—India may partner with Japan, another Artemis Accords participant. The pair’s planned LUPEX rover would directly study the nature, abundance and accessibility of water ice on the moon’s south pole and could provide vital data for future crewed missions launched there as part of NASA’s Artemis program. “LUPEX requires a more precise touchdown with a much bigger lander. Chandrayaan-3’s success will act as a stepping stone toward India building LUPEX’s lander and thus playing a key role in the future exploration of our moon,” says S. Megala, deputy director of ISRO’s lunar science and exploration program.

First, however, India’s government must formally approve the nation’s involvement. (Japan has already given the green light for its own contribution.) And in the meantime, Japan will launch another lunar mission of its own: the nation’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is slated for liftoff on August 26, with a goal of lunar touchdown later this year to demonstrate new technologies for precise and affordable moon landings amid complex terrain.

India's Chandrayaan-3 landed on the south pole of the moon − a space policy expert explains what this means for India and the global race to the moon

India made history as the first country to land near the south pole of the moon with its Chandrayaan-3 lander on Aug. 23, 2023.

India made history  as the first country to land near the south pole of the moon with its Chandrayaan-3 lander on Aug. 23, 2023. This also makes it the first country to land on the moon since China in 2020.

India is one of several countries — including the U.S. with its  Artemis program  — endeavoring to land on the moon. The south pole of the moon is of particular interest, as its surface, marked by craters, trenches and pockets of ancient ice, hasn’t been visited until now.

The Conversation U.S. asked  international affairs expert  Mariel Borowitz about this moon landing's implications for both science and the global community.

Related: Watch Chandrayaan-3's Pragyan rover take its '1st steps' on the moon (video)

Why are countries like India looking to go to the moon?

Countries are interested in  going to the moon  because it can inspire people, test the limits of human technical capabilities and allow us to discover more about our solar system.

The moon has a  historical and cultural significance  that really seems to resonate with people – anyone in the world can look up at the night sky , see the moon and understand how amazing it is that a spacecraft built by humans is roaming around the surface.

The moon also presents a unique opportunity to engage in both  international cooperation and competition  in a peaceful, but highly visible, way.

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The fact that  so many nations  – the United States, Russia, China, India, Israel – and  even commercial entities  are interested in landing on the moon means that there are many opportunities to forge new partnerships.

These partnerships can allow nations to do more in space by pooling resources, and they encourage more peaceful cooperation here on Earth by connecting individual researchers and organizations.

There are some people who also believe that exploration of the moon can provide economic benefits. In the near term, this might include the emergence of startup companies working on space technology and contributing to these missions. India has seen a  surge in space startups  recently.

Eventually, the moon may provide economic benefits based on the natural resources that can be found there, such as  water ,  helium-3  and  rare Earth elements .

Are we seeing new global interest in space?

Over the last few decades, weve seen a significant increase in the number of nations involved in space activity. This is very apparent when it comes to satellites that collect imagery or data about the Earth, for example.  More than 60 nations  have been involved in these types of satellite missions. Now were seeing this trend expand to space exploration, and particularly the moon.

In some ways, the interest in the moon is driven by similar goals as in the first space race in the 1960s – demonstrating technological capabilities and inspiring young people and the general public. However, this time it’s not just two superpowers competing in a race. Now we have many participants, and while there is  still a competitive element , there is also an opportunity for cooperation and forging new international partnerships to explore space.

Also, with all these new actors and the technical advances of the last 60 years, there is the potential to engage in  more sustainable exploration . This could include building moon bases , developing ways to use lunar resources and eventually engaging in economic activities on the moon based on natural resources or tourism.

How does India’s mission compare with moon missions in other countries?

Indias accomplishment is the first of its kind and very exciting, but its worth noting that its one of seven  missions currently operating  on and around the moon.

In addition to  Indias Chandrayaan-3 rover  near the south pole, there is also  South Korea’s Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter , which is studying the moons surface to identify future landing sites; the NASA-funded  CAPSTONE spacecraft , which was developed by a  space startup company ; and NASA’s  Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter . The CAPSTONE craft is studying the stability of a unique orbit around the moon, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is collecting data about the moon and mapping sites for future missions.

Also, while  India Chandrayaan-2 rover  crashed, the accompanying orbiter is still operational. China  Chang’e-4  and  Chang’e-5  landers are still operating on the moon as well.

Other nations and commercial entities are working to join in.  Russia Luna-25 mission   crashed into the moon  three days before the Chandrayaan-3 landed, but the fact that Russia developed the rover and got so close is still a significant achievement.

The same could be said for the lunar lander built by the private Japanese space company  ispace . The lander  crashed into the moon  in April 2023.

Why choose to explore the south pole of the moon?

The south pole of the moon is the area where nations are focused for future exploration. All of NASA  13 candidate landing locations  for the Artemis program are located near the south pole.

This area offers the greatest potential to find  water ice , which could be used to support astronauts and to  make rocket fuel . It also has peaks that are in constant or near-constant sunlight, which creates excellent opportunities for generating power to support lunar activities.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Mariel Borowitz is an Associate Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology and director of the Nunn School Program on International Affairs, Science, and Technology. Her research deals with international space policy issues, focusing particularly on global developments related to remote sensing satellites and challenges to space security and sustainability. Her book, “Open Space: The Global Effort for Open Access to Environmental Satellite Data," published by MIT Press, examines trends in the development of data sharing policies governing Earth observing satellites, as well as interactions with the growing commercial remote sensing sector. Her work has been published in Science, Strategic Studies Quarterly, Space Policy, Astropolitics, and New Space. Her research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Dr. Borowitz completed a detail as a policy analyst for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC from 2016 to 2018. In 2022, she testified to the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics in a hearing titled, "Space Situational Awareness: Guiding the Transition to a Civil Capability."

Dr. Borowitz earned a PhD in Public Policy at the University of Maryland and a Masters degree in International Science and Technology Policy from the George Washington University. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Chandrayaan 3: Five hurdles India's third lunar mission overcame so far

Check out five important steps achieved by chandrayaan-3 during its journey to the moon before its soft landing..

The world awaits Chandrayaan-3's historic landing on the Moon's south pole on Wednesday. After Russia's Luna 25 crash, people across the globe hope that everything goes as planned with Chandrayaan-3 when it will attempt its soft landing. Till now, the spacecraft and all the systems are working perfectly and ISRO says no contingencies are anticipated on Wednesday.

Also Read| Chandrayaan 3 landing attempt on Aug 23 at 6:04pm; where to watch live?

From the day of its launch on July 14, the spacecraft successfully carried out all the steps that placed it closer to the Moon. The crucial steps involved entering the Moon's orbit, followed by carrying out manoeuvres and then the separation of the Propulsion Module and Lander Module.

Here are five hurdles that Chandrayaan-3 overcame during its journey so far:

July 14: LVM3 M4 vehicle successfully launched Chandrayaan-3 into orbit. Chandrayaan-3, in its precise orbit, began its journey to the Moon.

July 15: The first orbit-raising maneuver (Earthbound firing-1) successfully performed at ISTRAC/ISRO, Bengaluru. Spacecraft was in 41762 km x 173 km orbit.

August 1: The spacecraft was inserted into the translunar orbit. The orbit achieved was 288 km x 369328 km. Lunar-Orbit Insertion (LOI) was planned for August 5.

August 5: Chandrayaan-3 successfully inserted into the lunar orbit. The orbit achieved was 164 km x 18074 km, as intended.

August 17: Lander Module (LM) was successfully separated from the Propulsion Module (PM).

Also Read| Chandrayaan-3's Vikram Lander establishes communication with Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, says ISRO

What will happen after landing.

The Propulsion Module which will remain in Moon's orbit for months or years, has an attached payload known as the Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE), to study Earth's spectral and polarimetric measurements from the moon's orbit. Simply put, SHAPE will analyse certain signatures of Earth's light.

Also Read| ‘If factors unfavourable, will postpone Chandrayaan-3 landing': ISRO scientist

Study of the lunar surface by payloads.

Once the Lander Module reaches the Moon's surface, the lander Vikram will deploy its payloads. These include Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) for measuring temperature and thermal conductivity. Another payload, the Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA), will measure seismic activity around the landing site. The Langmuir Probe (LP) will estimate plasma density and changes. A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA will be used for lunar laser studies.

Role of Pragyan rover

The rover Pragyan will carry an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and a Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) to determine the elements in the landing site's vicinity.

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Chandrayaan 3

• What is the Chandrayaan-3 Mission

Parts of the Chandrayaan 3 Mission

Timeline of the chandrayaan 3 mission.

• What differentiates Chandrayaan-3 from Chandrayaan-2

Chandrayaan-3 vs Luna-25

• Significance of the Chandrayaan-3 Mission

Way Forward

• FAQs on Chandrayaan-3

Prelims: General Science

Mains:   Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenisation of technology and developing new technology

Chandrayaan-3 Mission is the second attempt of the Indian Space Research Organisation after the Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate the capability of India in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. The Lander Module of Chandrayaan-3 carrying the Lander, Vikram and Rover, Pragyan,  made the historic soft landing on the surface of the Lunar South Pole on August 23, 2023 . Thus, India became the first nation to soft-land on the surface of the Lunar south pole and overall the fourth to do a soft landing anywhere on the Earth’s natural satellite. Indian Space Research Organisation launched the Chandrayaan-3 Mission by using the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (LVM3) on 14th July 2023 from Sriharikota.

With the objective to demonstrate the ability to soft landing and roving as well as to carry out experiments on the lunar surface, the Chandrayaan 3 Mission aims to strengthen India's prowess in space discovery and innovation. Continuing the success of its predecessors (Chandrayaan-1 and Chandrayaan-2), the Mission has brought India into the exclusive elite space club.

What is the Chandrayaan 3 Mission?

The Chandrayaan 3 Mission was launched using the LVM3 rocket system. LVM3 is the new launch vehicle of ISRO with the capability to place the modules into the GTO (Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit) in a cost-effective manner. It is a three-stage launch vehicle with two solid strap stages and one core liquid stage. The Launcher, LVM3 M4, placed the integrated Modules in an Elliptic Parking Orbit of size approx. 170 x 36500 km (a GTO).

Objectives of Chandrayaan 3 Mission

One of the many goals of the Mission is to look for water ice that could support future human life on the Moon and also for supplying propellants for spacecraft in future interplanetary missions. The objectives of the Chandrayaan-3 mission are:

• Safe and Soft Landing on the Lunar Surface by the Lander
• Roving on the Moon by the Rover
• In-situ scientific experiments by the Rover

The Chandrayaan-3 Mission consists of two modules - The propulsion module (PM) and the Lander module (LM). The total mass of both the modules is 3900 kg (Propulsion Module-2148 kg, and Lander Module-1752 kg, including Rover-26 kg).

Propulsion Module

The propulsion module carried the lander and rover configuration till the 100 km lunar orbit. Other than carrying the Lander Module, it also has a scientific payload called Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE).

• The SHAPE payload will conduct novel spectro-polarimetric studies of Earth from lunar orbit. It will look for smaller planets that could be habitable in the reflected light.

Lander Module

The Lander Module consists of a Lander (Vikram) and a Rover (Pragyan). The Lander Module made the soft landing using the Automatic Landing Sequence (ALS), where the Lander started its engine (thrusters) and maneuvered the speed and direction of the Module as well as the position of the landing site.

After the historic touchdown, the Rover inside it ramped down on the lunar surface to carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during its mission life.

• The total lifespan of the Mission (Lander and Rover) is lunar day (14 Earth days).
• Both the Lander and the Rover have scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the lunar surface.
• The objectives of scientific payloads planned on the Chandrayaan-3 Lander Module and Rover are provided below:

• Launched: July 14, 2023
• Inserted into Lunar Orbit: August 05
• Separation of the Lander Module from the Propulsion Module: August 17
• Deboosting is the slowing down of the spacecraft in an orbit where the Perilune (closest point to the Moon) is 30 km, and the farthest point (the Apolune) is 100 km from the landing site in the South Polar Region.
• It is required for the proper landing as the speed needed to land is much less than the lander.
• Second Deboosting on August 20
• The targeted site on the Moon was around 70 degrees South near the Southern pole of the Moon.
• If the Lander had missed the target of the commencement of the soft landing, It would have to wait for 1 month.
• It landed at around 69.36°S and 32.34°E (between Manzinus C and Simpelius N craters).
• Rover started its exploration on August 24

What differentiates Chandrayaan 3 from Chandrayaan 2?

Chandrayaan-2 failed in the final phase of its mission in 2019 because it could not achieve a soft landing. The main issue for the crash was that the five thrusters on the lander developed a higher velocity than expected. Also, the lander had to take pictures to fix the landing site. All of this made the accumulated errors. Learning from previous experiences, the ISRO had incorporated some advancements to achieve success this time, which are as follows:

“Failure-based design” instead of the "Success-based design":

• The failure-based design means that if everything, including sensors and electronics, had failed, Vikram would still have made the soft landing.
•  This was done by identifying and rectifying all the probable scenarios that could go wrong.
• These included failure of electronics, engine failure, unable to reach the landing spot, sensor failure, algorithm failure, velocity higher than required, etc.

Increase in the landing area:

• The target area of Chandrayaan-3 was kept at 4km x 2.4km area instead of 500m x 500m targeted by Chandrayaan-2 so that the Lander had more options to choose the best target site on its own.

More fuel to Lander:

• It was kept to facilitate the Lander to travel longer distances to the landing site and, if needed, to the alternate landing site.

Help from Chandrayaan-2 orbiter:

• The Chandrayaan-3 mission does not carry an orbiter; it is using the high-resolution images from the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter.

More robust integrated craft:

• The weight of the payload of Chandrayaan-3 had been kept more than the Chandrayaan-2, with the Lander having most of the extra weight for successful landing.
• The number of thrusters had decreased from five to four with no central thrusters.
• The legs of the Lander were made sturdier to ensure that they could land even at a higher velocity.
• Use of additional solar panels to ensure power generation after a soft landing regardless of the weather on the Moon.

Luna-25, Russia's first lunar mission since 1976, has recently crashed in an attempt to get into the landing orbit. It was targeted to land at the South Pole of the Moon, of particular interest to researchers believing that the polar craters might contain frozen water in their rocks. There are some differences between the Chandrayaan-3 and the Luna-25, which are as follows:

India Moon Landing In Latest Moon Race, India Lands First in Southern Polar Region

Days after a Russian lunar landing failed, India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission is set to begin exploring an area of the moon that has yet to be visited and has water ice that could be a resource for future missions.

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India Successfully Lands Spacecraft on Moon’s Surface

The control room at the indian space research organization erupted in cheers when the chandrayaan-3 spacecraft landed on the southern polar region of the moon..

The altitude is being brought down from 800 meters. And we are nearing and approaching the lunar surface. He hung up a painting for the exact day. He the. People are applauding. From the Secretary department of space and chairman isro Somnath. I’m confident. That all countries in the world. Including those from the Global South. Are capable of achieving such feats. We can all aspire. Part of the moon and beyond.

Hari Kumar Alex Travelli Mujib Mashal and Kenneth Chang

Hari Kumar and Alex Travelli reported from Bengaluru, India, near the Chandrayaan-3 mission control.

What to know about India’s next chapter in space.

Two visitors from India — a lander named Vikram and a rover named Pragyan — landed in the southern polar region of the moon on Wednesday. The two robots, from a mission named Chandrayaan-3, make India the first country to ever reach this part of the lunar surface in one piece — and only the fourth country ever to land on the moon.

“We have achieved soft landing on the moon,” S. Somanath, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, said after a roar ripped through the ISRO compound just past 6 p.m. local time. “India is on the moon.”

The Indian public already takes great pride in the accomplishments of the nation’s space program, which has orbited the moon and Mars and routinely launches satellites above the Earth with far fewer financial resources than other space-faring nations.

But the achievement of Chandrayaan-3 may be even sweeter, as it comes at a particularly important moment in the South Asian giant’s diplomatic push as an ambitious power on the rise.

Indian officials have been advocating in favor of a multipolar world order in which New Delhi is seen as indispensable to global solutions. In space exploration, as in many other fields, the message of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has been clear: The world will be a fairer place if India takes on a leadership role, even as the world’s most populous nation works to meet its people’s basic needs.

That assertiveness on the world stage is a central campaign message for Mr. Modi, who is up for re-election to a third term early next year. He has frequently fused his image with that of India’s rise as an economic, diplomatic and technological power.

Mr. Modi has been physically present at mission control for other recent moments in India’s space history, including during a successful orbit of Mars in 2014 and a failed moon landing in 2019 where he was seen consoling the scientists and hugging the chief of ISRO, who was weeping.

But the Chandrayaan-3 landing coincided with his trip to South Africa for a meeting of the group of nations known as BRICS . Mr. Modi’s face beamed into the control room in Bengaluru during the landing’s final minutes, where he was split-screen with the animation of the lander.

“Chandrayaan-3’s triumph mirrors the aspirations and capabilities of 1.4 billion Indians,” Mr. Modi said when the landing was complete, declaring the event as “the moment for new, developing India.”

In a country with a deep tradition of science, the excitement and anticipation around the landing provided a rare moment of unity in what has otherwise been fraught times of sectarian tension stoked by divisive policies of Mr. Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist party.

Prayers were offered for the mission’s success at Hindu temples, Sikh Gurdwaras and Muslim mosques. Schools held special ceremonies and organized live viewings of the moon landing, with an official YouTube video of the event racking up tens of millions of views. The police band in the city of Mumbai, India’s commercial and entertainment hub, sent a “special musical tribute” to the scientists, performing a popular patriotic song.

“There is full faith,” the song, in Hindi, says. “We will succeed.”

The Indian mission launched in July, taking a slow, fuel-conscious route toward the moon. But Chandrayaan-3 out-endured its Russian counterpart, Luna-25, which launched 12 days ago. Luna-25 was scheduled to land on the moon on Monday in the same general vicinity as the Indian craft but crashed on Saturday following an engine malfunction.

That India managed to outdo Russia, which as the Soviet Union put the first satellite, man and woman in space, speaks to the diverging fortunes of the two nations’ space programs.

Much of India’s foreign policy in recent decades has been shaped by a delicate balancing act between Washington and Moscow, but the country is grappling more with an increasingly aggressive China at its borders. The two countries’ militaries have been stuck in a standoff in the Himalayas for three years now, and the vulnerability to a threat from China is a major driving factor in India’s calculations.

A shared frustration with Beijing has only increased U.S. and Indian cooperation , including in space, where China is establishing itself in direct competition with the United States.

And with the success of Chandrayaan-3, Mr. Modi can reap benefits in leaning into India’s scientific prowess to “more confidently assert Indian national interest on the world stage,” said Bharat Karnad, an emeritus professor of national security studies at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi.

The control room in Bengaluru became a joyous scene among the engineers, scientists and technicians of the Indian Space Research Organization.

Speaking after the landing, members of the ISRO leadership who managed Chandrayaan-3 made clear that the failure of their last moon landing attempt, in 2019, was a major driving force behind their work.

“From the day we started rebuilding our spacecraft after Chandaryaan-2 experience, it has been breathe in, breathe out Chandrayaan-3 for our team,” said Kalpana Kalahasti, the mission’s associate project director.

Chandrayaan-3 has been orbiting the moon since early August. On Sunday, an engine burn pushed the lander into an elliptical orbit that passed within 15 miles of the surface. On Wednesday, as the spacecraft approached the low point of the orbit, moving at more than 3,700 miles per hour, a preprogrammed sequence of maneuvers commenced.

The craft’s four engines fired again at the start of what ISRO called the “rough braking” portion of the descent, its speed of fall accelerating. After 11.5 minutes, the lander was just over 4.5 miles above the surface and started rotating from a horizontal to a vertical position while continuing its descent.

The spacecraft stopped to hover about 150 yards above the surface for a few seconds, then resumed its downward journey until it settled gently on the surface, about 370 miles from the south pole. The landing sequence took about 19 minutes.

Chandrayaan-3 is a scientific mission, timed for a two-week period when the sun will shine on the landing site and provide energy for the solar-powered lander and rover. The lander and rover will use a range of instruments to make thermal, seismic and mineralogical measurements.

India and ISRO have many other plans afoot.

Although an Indian astronaut flew to orbit on a Soviet spacecraft in 1984, the country has never sent people to space on its own. India is preparing its first astronaut mission, called Gaganyaan. But the project, which aims to send three Indian astronauts to space on the country’s own spacecraft, has faced delays, and ISRO has not announced a date.

The country is also working on launching a solar observatory called Aditya-L1 in early September, and later, an Earth observation satellite built jointly with NASA. India is also planning a follow-up to its recently concluded Mars orbiter mission.

Mr. Somanath has described the current moment as an inflection point, with the country opening its space efforts to private investors after half a century of state monopoly that made advances but at “a shoestring budget mode of working.”

“These are very cost-effective missions,” Mr. Somanath said after the landing. “No one in the world can do it like we do.”

When pressed by reporters about the cost of Chandrayaan-3, Mr. Somanath deflected with laughter: “I won’t disclose such secrets, we don’t want everyone else to become so cost-effective!”

While ISRO will continue exploring the solar system, the accomplishments of India’s private sector may soon garner as much attention. A younger generation of space engineers, inspired by SpaceX , have started going into business on their own. While ISRO’s budget in the past fiscal year was less than $1.5 billion, the size of India’s private space economy is already at least $6 billion and is expected to triple as soon as 2025.

And the pace of change is quickening. Mr. Modi’s government wants India to harness the private sector’s entrepreneurial energy to put more satellites and investment into space — and faster.

Up on the moon Vikram and Pragyan were set to get to work, with the rover possibly rolling onto the lunar surface in the coming hours or sometime on Thursday according to Mr. Somanath. The landing site, on a plateau south of the Manzinus crater and to the west of the Boguslawsky crater, is at about the same latitude as the edge of Antarctica on Earth.

To date, spacecraft have successfully landed on the moon closer to the equator. The polar regions are intriguing because there is frozen water at the bottom of permanently shadowed craters. If such water can be found in sufficient quantities and extracted, astronauts could use it for future space exploration.

The lunar south pole is the intended destination for astronauts who could visit the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program, and also for upcoming Chinese and Russian missions. In the nearer term, as many as three robotic missions, one from Japan and two from private U.S. companies working with NASA, could head to the moon later this year.

But in Bengaluru after the launch, Mr. Somanath hinted that India had its eyes on worlds beyond the moon.

“It is very difficult for any nation to achieve. But we have done so with just two attempts,” he said. “It gives confidence to land on Mars and maybe Venus and other planets, maybe asteroids.”

Kenneth Chang

On the moon’s south pole, a quest for ice.

If you want to send astronauts to the moon, a place with water would be a good destination.

Obviously, humans need to drink water to survive, and water molecules can be split into hydrogen and oxygen. Oxygen provides air to breathe, and hydrogen and oxygen can also be used as rocket propellants to get back home to Earth, or somewhere else in the solar system.

But water is heavy, and lugging it from Earth is expensive and inconvenient.

The rocks brought back by NASA’s Apollo astronauts from 1969 through 1972 suggested that the moon was completely dry. But then planetary scientists started seeing hints of water ice at the bottom of craters in the polar regions where the sun never shines. India’s first lunar orbiter, Chandrayaan-1 , collected some of the data that confirmed the presence of water.

The armada of missions now headed to the south pole aim to measure how much water is contained in the shadowed craters and how difficult it would be to extract the water. (It could be very difficult if the water molecules are trapped within minerals and not as ice mixed in with the soil.)

Layers of ice in the craters could also provide a history book of the solar system, much like how ice cores in Greenland and Antarctica provide a record of Earth’s climate.

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Michael Roston

You won’t have to wait long for the next moon mission.

If you found the journeys of India’s Chandrayaan-3 and Russia’s Luna-25 missions exciting, we have even more lunar adventures for you to follow. One moon mission will be in the news later this week, and there could be even more lunar missions later this year.

The next mission will launch on Friday, Aug. 26. It’s called Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, and comes from Japan’s space agency, JAXA. SLIM aims to test the country’s lunar landing technologies; JAXA has yet to announce a landing date for the mission. Sign up for The Times Space and Astronomy Calendar to get a reminder about the launch and landing of SLIM.

Two American companies are also vying to set down on the lunar surface later this year. They are participants in a program called Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS , in which NASA pays private businesses to send experiments to the surface of the moon.

A lander from the first company, Intuitive Machines, of Houston, could launch as early as Nov. 15 on a SpaceX rocket. It will head to the lunar south polar region.

The other lander, from Astrobotic Technology, of Pittsburgh, is to be lofted by the new Vulcan Centaur rocket. It will head to the northeast edge of the Ocean of Storms on the moon’s near side. It had been expected to launch earlier this year, but was delayed after an explosion during a test of a version of a part of the rocket. A launch is expected sometime before the end of this year .

NASA selected the landing sites for both missions based on their science value for the future missions of Artemis, the American program to return astronauts to the moon on a sustainable basis.

Alex Travelli

S. Somanath, the director of the Indian Space Research Organization, had fun deflecting one reporter’s question about the project’s frugal cost. Somanath laughed and said, “I won’t disclose such secrets. We don’t want everyone else to become so cost-effective!” The Chandrayaan-2 was reported to have cost about $46 million, and the Chandrayaan-3 is supposed to have been in a similar range.

Speaking to reporters gathered outside Mission Control, the chairman of ISRO, S. Somanath, told us that the lander’s rover, named Pragyaan, would be rolled out in a matter of hours or, maybe, tomorrow. Its sensors, including a laser and an alpha-particle beam, as well as instruments on the Vikram lander, will start relaying data after that.

Behind India’s space agency, a private space sector is ready to lift off.

As India looks out into the solar system, its space agency is taking a star turn from an earlier era of space exploration. While the national government looks like a hero, private companies that are increasingly important players in the country’s space program operate quietly behind the scene.

ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organization, was born not long after NASA. In recent years, it has sent robotic orbiters to Mars and the moon and is now preparing to send the first Indian astronauts to space. Based in Bengaluru, the center of the world’s third-largest tech start-up scene, ISRO has bequeathed India a legacy of derring-do in space research.

But the accomplishments of India’s private sector may soon garner as much attention. A younger generation of space engineers, inspired by SpaceX, have started going into business on their own.

And the pace of change is quickening. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government wants India to harness the private sector’s entrepreneurial energy to put more satellites and investment into space, faster. That means relegating ISRO to a lower priority.

Mr. Modi hinted at this ambition in June 2020 when he launched IN-SPACe, a government agency headed by a former chairman of India’s biggest multinational automobile company, and assigned it with “space promotion and authorization.” It has become a one-stop shop for India’s private players, as they sign memorandums of understanding with the government and make plans involving ISRO’s spaceport.

This year Mr. Modi’s government published an official space policy that listed IN-SPACe’s role first and gave it more than twice as many priorities as ISRO, which is now to “focus primarily on research and development” and “expanding the human understanding of outer space.”

Outer space is of less interest to commerce, compared with satellites that exchange information with the Earth’s surface, and so the segment left to ISRO seems to be shrinking. While ISRO’s budget in the past fiscal year was less than $1.5 billion, the size of India’s private space economy is already at least $6 billion, and expected to triple as soon as 2025.

Mujib Mashal

S. Somanath, the director of the Indian Space Research Organization, highlights what has been a defining characteristic of India’s space program — that they have achieved a lot with far fewer resources than other major players. “These are very cost effective missions. No one in the world can do it like we do.”

On X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Bill Nelson, administrator of NASA, offered his congratulations to ISRO after India became the fourth nation to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the moon. “We’re glad to be your partner on this mission!” he wrote. (NASA provided access to its Deep Space Network of radio antenna for communications with India's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft.)

India’s main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, joins in the celebrations. “We are deeply indebted to the remarkable hard work, unparalleled ingenuity and unflinching dedication of our scientists, space engineers, researchers,” Mallikarjun Kharge, the party’s president, said.

Hari Kumar and Mujib Mashal

Here is what’s next for India in space exploration.

India has a busy decade of space exploration ahead.

S. Somanath, the director of Indian Space Research Organization, has described the current moment as an inflection point, as the country opens its space programs to private investors after half a century of state monopoly that made advances but at “a shoestring budget mode of working.”

A large share of India’s space efforts in the coming years will focus on the moon.

In addition to the scientific results of Chandrayaan-3, India is preparing a joint lunar exploration with Japan, in which India will provide the lander and Japan the launch vehicle and the rover. The robotic mission, known as LUPEX, is also intended for exploring the South Pole of the moon.

Although an Indian astronaut flew to orbit in 1984, the country has never sent humans to space on its own. It is therefore preparing its first astronaut mission to space, called Gaganyaan. But the project, which aims to send three Indian astronauts to space on the country’s own spacecraft, has faced delays, and ISRO has not announced a date for it.

ISRO will first have to conduct a test flight of the Gaganyaan spacecraft with no astronauts aboard. Officials have said they are at the stage of perfecting the crew escape system, and they said this month that they had tested the drogue parachutes, which help stabilize the capsule that the astronauts will ride as they return to Earth.

Additionally, India is preparing for the Aditya-L1 mission, which plans to study the sun, in early September. ISRO officials have said that it will carry seven payloads to study the photosphere chromosphere and the outermost layers of the sun using electromagnetic and particle detectors.

Another mission is the collaborative NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, or NISAR, which will monitor changes in our planet’s land and ice surfaces from orbit. It is slated to launch from India next year.

The country will also launch a second Mars orbiter mission. The first Mars mission, Mangalyaan, successfully entered the planet’s orbit in 2014 and remained in communication with ISRO until the mission concluded in 2022 when the spacecraft lost power . It made India the first country to achieve Martian orbit on its first attempt, and demonstrated that the country could show scientific prowess even when resources are constrained: The mission’s budget of about $75 million was less than the $100 million budget of the Hollywood space film “Gravity.”

Lynsey Chutel

In South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa celebrated the successful landing during a summit of the five-member group of nations known as BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. "This, for us as the BRICS family, is a momentous occasion, and we rejoice with you," he said to applause.

The ISRO leadership who managed Chandrayaan-3 make clear the failure of their last moon landing attempt, in 2019, was a major driving force. “From the day we started rebuilding our spacecraft after Chandaryaan-2 experience, it has been breathe in breathe out Chandrayaan-3 for our team,” said Kalpana Kalahasti, the mission's associate project director.

The Deep Space Network, a NASA network of large dish antennas, is assisting ISRO in communicating with the ground. Right now, it shows Chandrayaan-3 sending and receiving signals.

Modi is speaking: “This is an unprecedented moment," he says, adding, "This is the moment for new, developing India. This is the moment for 1.4 billion” Indians.

A genuine roar rips out, from both Mission Control and the media tent and elsewhere in the ISRO compound: the lander has landed! Mr. Modi’s face was streamed on screen, silently smiling, during the final hundred meters’ descent. Now the speeches begin, and everyone is clapping.

The landing attempt, in its final minutes, is being viewed by 7.5 million people on ISRO’s youtube channel, and it is broadcast live on Indian news channels.

Kenneth Chang and Jonathan Corum

The moon may be the easiest place in the solar system to land, or crash.

Once a robotic spacecraft is commanded to land on the moon, there is no turning back.

The task is not easy, but in many ways, the moon is the easiest place in the solar system to land a spacecraft from Earth.

It is the closest destination, less than a quarter-million miles away. It is much smaller than Earth or the other planets, so its gravity is weaker and it is easier to slow spacecraft down.

Unlike Mars, the moon’s atmosphere doesn’t generate searing temperatures on the outside of the spacecraft during descent. Venus is even more hellish, with temperatures close to 900 degrees Fahrenheit at the surface and corrosive sulfuric acid in the atmosphere.

Yet when Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the moon on Saturday, two days before a planned landing attempt, it was the latest in a series of impacts, belly flops and hard landings since 1959, when the Soviet Union’s Luna-2 became the first probe to hit the moon.

Some crashes were setbacks. Others were intentional, marking the end of a successful mission. Whatever the cause, space agencies have learned from each collision. Crashes can reveal software glitches or weaknesses in a spacecraft’s design, and they can expose material under the lunar surface for future study.

In the following interactive, take the moon for a spin and see all the places where the United States, the Soviet Union, China, India and others have crashed on the moon:

Racing to Land, or Crash, on the Moon

Six decades of crashes, belly flops and hard landings on the lunar surface.

This is closer to landing than Chandrayaan-2 got.

Whoops and cheering as the spacecraft flips from a horizontal to a vertical orientation, at less than 800 meters above the lunar surface.

As the spacecraft continues its automated descent to the moon, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has just shown up on screen in mission control in a video call from South Africa, prompting further applause in the room.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in South Africa for a meeting of the BRICS countries during the landing attempt. In 2019, Mr. Modi was at the control room to console the emotional scientists after Chandrayaan-2 failed, hugging the weeping chief of that mission.

Chandrayaan-3 is aiming to land in the moon’s south polar region.

Chandrayaan-3 is aiming for a landing site in the moon’s south polar region at about 70 degrees south latitude, or about 370 miles from the south pole. That latitude is about as far south as the edge of Antarctica is on Earth.

The landing site lies on a plateau south of the Manzinus crater and to the west of the Boguslawsky crater. That is roughly in the same neighborhood as where India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission crashed in 2019, and where Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft, which crashed on Saturday, was to set down.

Chandrayaan-2

Chandrayaan-3

target landing site

Boguslawsky

target landing

Scientists working on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter described the terrain as “relatively ancient.” The spacecraft is heading to a spot that can be described as flat and boring, compared with more rugged parts of the lunar surface. Mission managers sometimes choose such nondescript environs to increase the chances of a successful landing.

There are no second chances now. The spacecraft is essentially doing a controlled fall toward the moon.

The powered descent has begun, and the room has burst into applause. Minutes ago, our window into the mission control was a picture of nervous tension. Sitting in front of banks of monitors and keyboards, most of the scientists seemed to be clutching pens and notebooks, with some tapping them in agitation. Now most are breaking into excited smiles.

The Chandrayaan-2 moon lander crashed in 2019, but its orbiter has produced 4 years of science.

The crash of the Chandrayaan-2 lander in 2019 was a disappointment to the Indian Space Research Organization — India’s equivalent of NASA. But the mission was not a total loss.

The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter continued to travel around the moon, where its suite of instruments have been making scientific observations.

One instrument on the orbiter identified signs of water, likely trapped in minerals , in parts of the moon far from the polar regions. Further study of the findings may give insights into the moon’s geology, chemical composition and interaction with the solar wind .

If the water can be extracted efficiently, “This is also significant for future planetary exploration for resource utilization,” a team of ISRO researchers wrote in a paper published two years ago.

Using data from another instrument that measured X-rays, scientists produced a map of the abundance of the element sodium on the lunar surface . That helps answer the mystery of sodium atoms that have been observed floating above the surface. The sodium atoms can be knocked off the surface by the bombardment of ions and ultraviolet light from the sun.

Chandrayaan-2 will also have another important job if the Chandrayaan-3 mission succeeds in landing. The older orbiter will be the new lander’s link back home to mission control on Earth.

The live video feed from the interior of the Mission Control room has just taken over the large screen in the media area. In Hindi, an announcer welcomes all who have come to watch, from around the world. “All are excited to see the moment of the Chandrayaan landing on the moon.”

Excitement is building around the HQ of India’s space agency. The media tent outside ISRO’s Mission Control room in Bengaluru is thronging, with the buzz of human chatter drowning out the hum of the underpowered air-coolers. Banners celebrating the “Chandrayaan Mission Soft Landing Event” have been unfurled and flowers garland an empty lectern before a giant LED screen that glows with a holding pattern.

Why India’s last moon lander crashed

The Vikram lander and Pragyan rover on Chandrayaan-3 are almost identical to the ones that were aboard Chandrayaan-2 four years ago. Indeed, their names are unchanged.

The Chandrayaan-2 landing attempt on Sept. 6, 2019, appeared to be going well, until the lander was about 1.3 miles above the surface. Then its trajectory diverged from the planned path .

The problems arose because one of the lander’s five engines had thrust that was slightly higher than expected, S. Somanath, the chairman of India’s space agency, said during a news conference last month. With the spacecraft firing its engines to slow down, that meant it slowed more than anticipated.

The spacecraft tried to correct its path, but its software specified limits on how quickly it could turn. And because of the higher thrust, the lander was still some distance from its destination even as it approached the ground.

“The craft is trying to reach there by increasing velocity to reach there, whereas it was not having enough time to,” Mr. Somanath said.

In essence, the spacecraft’s computer was unable to find a solution that could satisfy all of the requirements for how and where it was supposed to land, and as a result, it crashed.

Months later, an amateur internet sleuth used imagery from a NASA spacecraft to locate the crash site , where the debris of the Vikram and Pragyan sit to this day.

Although the design of the Chandrayaan-3 lander is largely the same, engineers made alterations to avoid a repeat of the 2019 crash. Changes include stronger landing legs, more propellant, additional solar cells to gather energy from the sun and improved sensors to measure the altitude.

The software was also fixed so that the spacecraft could turn faster if needed, and the allowed landing area has been expanded.

If they get to the moon, the lander and the rover will use a range of instruments to make thermal, seismic and mineralogical measurements of the area.

It was a difficult weekend for Russia’s space program.

When Russia’s robotic Luna-25 mission launched on Aug. 11, it seemed set on a course to deny the Indian Chandrayaan-3 mission its shot at becoming the first spacecraft to land on the moon successfully this year.

But things turned out differently.

While Chandrayaan-3 took a steady, fuel-saving course to lunar orbit, Luna-25 rushed toward the moon, arriving there only five days after launching.

The Russian vehicle appeared to execute a series of orbital adjustments. Then, on Saturday, disaster struck.

At 2:10 p.m. Moscow time, Luna-25 fired its engines in order to move the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit that would prepare it for landing on Monday. By 2:57 p.m., Russia had lost contact with the spacecraft.

Yury Borisov, the head of Roscosmos, the state corporation that oversees Russia’s space program, described what was said to have gone wrong to the Rossiya 24 TV channel . The engine had been programmed to fire for 84 seconds. Instead, it fired for 127 seconds. That extra push sent the spacecraft on a collision course with the lunar surface. After nearly a day of silence, Roscosmos disclosed the failure on Sunday.

Mr. Borisov did not explain what had caused the engine to fire for too long. In an interview with The Times on Sunday , Natan Eismont, a senior scientist with the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that there had been indications that the engine had performance problems during Luna-25’s mission to the moon. Though not involved in the mission, he suggested that its managers may have needed to take more time before attempting the fateful burn that destroyed the spacecraft.

A mix of pride and anticipation mounts ahead of the moon landing.

Across India on Wednesday, there was an air of excitement and anticipation.

In a country with a deep tradition of science, schools were holding special ceremonies and organizing live viewings of the moon landing. Prayers were offered for the mission’s success at Hindu temples, Sikh Gurdwaras and Muslim mosques — an important moment of unity in what has otherwise been fraught times of sectarian tension .

Radio jockeys beamed with excitement, repeating the evening landing time before playing joyful songs. Television channels ran countdown clocks and competed in tickers. “INDIA’S MOON SHOT,” read the chyron at the bottom of one channel’s screen.

In Delhi, students made artwork celebrating what they hope will be a historic day — India joining just three other countries in landing on the moon and becoming the first to land in its southern polar region. In Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state, the government there has announced that schools would remain open in the evening for students to gather and watch the broadcast from mission control.

“We are very proud to say we are Indian because of our scientists,” one student from the southern city of Hyderabad told a television channel.

The police band in the city of Mumbai, India’s commercial and entertainment hub, sent a “special musical tribute” to the scientists working on the mission. They performed a popular patriotic song, Hum Honge Kaamyab.

The mood around the landing, which will take place just a little after sunset in India, was captured by the opening line of an article in Times of India .

“When the sun sets on Wednesday, look at the moon: India may be up there.”

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Essay on Chandrayaan 3 🧑‍🚀: Timeline, Successful Landing

• Updated on  
• Mar 15, 2024

To mark the successful landing of the Chandryaan-3 on the lunar surface, the Indian Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi , announced that 23rd August will be annually celebrated as National Space Day.

This article will cover some samples of essay on Chandryaan-3. Chandrayaan-3 was the first Indian spacecraft to successfully land on the south pole of the lunar surface. It was launched on 14th July 2023 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from its Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC)-SHAR in Sriharikota , Andhra Pradesh. On 23rd August at 18:03 IST, the lander ‘ Vikram ‘ touched down on the lunar south pole. This showed India’s capability of safely landing on the lunar surface, thus making it the first country to step on a lunar-south pole through Chandrayaan 3 .

Master the art of essay writing with our blog on How to Write an Essay in English .

Table of Contents

• 1 Essay on Chandrayaan-3 in 100 Words
• 2 Essay on Chandrayaan 3 in English 150 Words
• 3 Essay on Chandrayaan 3 in 200 Words
• 4 Timeline of Chandryaan 3
• 5.1 Points about Chandrayaan-3

Also Read: Essay on Peer Pressure: 100, 200 and 450 Word Samples in English

Essay on Chandrayaan-3 in 100 Words

The first lunar exploration mission in the history of ISRO was Chandrayan. It was launched in the year 2008 and since then 2 more follow missions have been launched under this program. 

The second follow-up mission was launched in 2019 and followed by a third follow-up mission in 2023. The success of Chandrayaan 3 has marked the country in different records such as the first country to land on the moon’s south pole and the most cost-effective execution. 

It was launched on July 14, 2023, from Sriharikota’s SDSC SHAR and landed successfully on 23rd August 2023. The mission will be carried down for 14 Earth days i.e. the Rover on the ladder will roam around the moon and study its surface for 14 days. This successful attempt has made India very sure of further development and planned missions for the Moon.

Essay on Chandrayaan 3 in English 150 Words

Chandrayaan-3 is India’s ambitious space mission which has made India proud. It was a successful space mission aimed to conduct a soft landing at the lunar south pole of the moon through the Vikram Lander. The spacecraft is also equipped with a Rover Pragyan consisting of payloads to study the moon’s surface. Apart from this, there were 9 sensors in the Lander.

Talking about the Payloads, there were 4 payloads in the lander namely ChaSTE, ILSA, RAMBHA, and LRA. 2 Rover payloads were APXS and LIBS. The propulsion module also contains a payload i.e. SHAPE. These payloads are designed to study the moon’s surface.

Chandrayaan-3 was active for 14 Earth days in the presence of the sun. After which, the Lander and the Rover were kept to sleep on 2 September because they could not function in the absence of sunlight. Later, efforts were made to wake Lander and Rover when the sunlight hit the moon’s surface. But ISRO revealed that there were no signals from the Lander and Rover.

Despite this, the project was a successful one and it has marked the name of India in Golden words in the history of Space.

Hon’ble Prime Minister of India has named the landing spot of Chandrayaan-3 as Shiv Shakti Point.

Essay on Chandrayaan 3 in 200 Words

Chandrayaan-3 is the most successful follow-up mission in the history of Indian space missions. It was followed by the successful Chandrayaan 1 and partly successful Chandrayaan 2. It has made a successful soft landing on the lunar surface and made India the fourth country to land on the lunar surface. 

It also marked India as the first country to land on the Moon’s south pole. It examined the presence of water and also gathered some valuable scientific information and data about its mineral composition and its geology. 

One of the main objections to this lunar mission was to make a soft landing. The Rover ‘Pragyan” will roam on the lunar surface for 1 Lunar day (Around 14 Earth Days). 

The cost of Chandrayaan 3 is much less than the previous attempt which is around INR 615 Crores making it the most cost-effective lunar mission. 

Timeline of Chandryaan 3

On 7th September 2019, ISRO’s Chandryaan 2 crashed while attempting a soft landing on the lunar surface. Since then, the Indian Space Research Organisation decided to build a successor to the Chandrayaan 2.

• 06 July 2023 – Chandryaan 3 is scheduled to launch on July 14, 2023, at 14:35 Hrs. IST from the Second Launch Pad, SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota.
• 07 July 2023 – Vehicle electrical tests completed. 
• 11 July 2023 – The ‘Launch Rehearsal’ simulation the launch preparation and process lasting 24 hours was concluded.
• 14 July 2023 – LVM3 M4 vehicle successfully launched Chandrayaan-3 into orbit. Chandrayaan-3, in its precise orbit, started its journey to the Moon.
• 15 July 2023 – The first orbit-raising manoeuvre was performed at ISTRAC/ISRO, Bengaluru. The spacecraft was in 41762 km x 173 km orbit.
• 17 July 2023 – The second orbit-raising manoeuvre was performed. The spacecraft was in 41603 km x 226 km orbit.
• 25 July 2023 – The last orbit-raising manoeuvre was performed.
• 01 August 2023 – The spacecraft entered the translunar orbit.
• 05 August 2023 – Chandrayaan-3 was successfully inserted into the lunar orbit.
• 14 August 2023 – The mission was in the orbit circularisation phase. 
• 17 August 2023 – The Lander Module was successfully separated from the Propulsion Module.
• 23 August 2023 – Chandrayaan-3 successfully reached its destination Chandrayaan-3 completed soft-landed on the moon. Congratulations, India!

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Vikram Lander is set into sleep mode around 08:00 Hrs. IST today. Prior to that, in-situ experiments by ChaSTE, RAMBHA-LP and ILSA payloads are performed at the new location. The data collected is received at the Earth. Payloads are now switched off.… pic.twitter.com/vwOWLcbm6P — ISRO (@isro) September 4, 2023

To improve your essay writing skills, here are the top 200+ English Essay Topics for school students.

Chandrayaan-3's triumph mirrors the aspirations and capabilities of 140 crore Indians. To new horizons and beyond! Proud moment for 🇮🇳. https://t.co/4oi6w7TCGG — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 23, 2023

Read More About Chandryaan 3

About Chandrayaan Project

The Chandrayaan Project is one of the most successful projects in the history of India’s space agency. It was launched by ISRO for the exploration of the lunar surface. 

The first mission i.e. Chandrayaan-1 was launched on 22 October 2008. It was a successful mission and was inserted into the lunar orbit on 8th November 2008. It marked a new success for the country and India became the fifth country in world history to reach the lunar surface. The cost of this mission was around 386 crores a lot less than any other space agency. The most prominent discovery of this mission was the presence of water molecules in the lunar south pole. It stopped communication with the base on 28 August 2009 and was declared over.

Chandrayaan-2 was followed by a second mission that was launched on 22 July 2019. It was successfully inserted into the lunar orbit on 20 August 2019 but failed to make a soft landing on the lunar surface on 6th September 2019 just 2.1 km away from the surface. However, it was declared partly successful because the orbiter was still functional for around 7.5 years.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: The Rover completed its assignments. It is now safely parked and set into Sleep mode. APXS and LIBS payloads are turned off. Data from these payloads is transmitted to the Earth via the Lander. Currently, the battery is fully charged. The solar panel is… — ISRO (@isro) September 2, 2023

Points about Chandrayaan-3

Another successful lunar landing attempt was made recently in the year 2023 and was launched on 14 July 2023. It completed its landing and the lander “Vikram Lander” and Rover “Pragyan” landed on the lunar south pole on 23rd August 2023. 

The main aim of this mission is the same as the Chandrayaan 2 to study the atmosphere of the moon and also explore its mineral composition. It will also further explore the presence of water in the lunar surface. The cost of this follow-up mission is around INR 615 crores making it one of the most cost-effective lunar missions.

Also Read: How to Prepare for UPSC in 6 Months?

Read all of our other popular essays

The first mission of Chandrayaan i.e. Chandrayaan 1 was launched in 2008. It was followed by Chandrayaan 2 and Chandrayaan-3 in 2019 and 2023 respectively. The latest version of Chandrayaan was a successful attempt to make India the first country to land safely on the Moon’s South Pole region.

The successful attempt of Chandrayaan 3 made India the first country to land on the moon in its south pole region. 

The cost of Chandrayaan 3 is approximately 615 crores ($75 million). It is the most affordable and successful mission to land on moon in the history. 

Chandrayaan-3 was a successful mission by the Indian Space Research Organization. It has demonstrated a soft landing on the unexplored lunar south pole of the moon and conducted in-situ research. It was launched on 14 July 2023 and landed on 23 August 2023.

Hence, we hope that this blog has assisted you in comprehending what an essay on Chandrayaan 3 must include. For more information on such interesting topics, visit our  essay writing  page and follow  Leverage Edu .

Simran Popli

An avid writer and a creative person. With an experience of 1.5 years content writing, Simran has worked with different areas. From medical to working in a marketing agency with different clients to Ed-tech company, the journey has been diverse. Creative, vivacious and patient are the words that describe her personality.

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Chandrayaan-3's Achievements On The Moon's South Polar Region: A Quick Glance

Here's a look at everything chandrayaan-3 has managed to achieve on the moon's south pole region so far..

The successful soft-landing of Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 mission made India the first country to land near the south pole on the Moon. This Chandrayaan-3 mission comprises of the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover, both of which conducted in-situ experiments on the Moon's surface.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission had the life of one lunar day (14 Earth days) and since that period ended, both the lander and the rover have been put to sleep as the lunar night rages on. ISRO scientists are hopeful that the Vikram and Pragyan will wake up on the Moon soon.

Regardless of what happens, the Chandrayaan-3 mission has already made great strides in terms of science. Here's a look at everything Chandrayaan-3 has managed to achieve on the Moon's south pole region so far.

Vikram Lander studies Moon's ionosphere

Chandraayan-3's Vikram lander studied the Moon's ionosphere - successfully measuring electron densities ranging from 5 million to 30 million per cubic metres. These measurements showed fluctuations and would provide insights into developing future communication technology suited for the Moon.

Temperature anomalies

Vikram lander drilled into the lunar surface, revealing temperatures 8 centimetres beneath the surface. It found that these temperatures showed a difference of 60 degree Celsius compared to surface temperatures.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Here are the first observations from the ChaSTE payload onboard Vikram Lander. ChaSTE (Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment) measures the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the pole, to understand the thermal behaviour of the moon's… pic.twitter.com/VZ1cjWHTnd — ISRO (@isro) August 27, 2023

Also read: Five Interesting Facts About India's Historic Chandrayaan-3 Mission

Moonquake detection

The Vikram lander's seismograph managed to record a short but significant seismic event, lasting about 4 seconds. This event could either be a minor "moonquake" or the result of a small meteorite impact, offering scientists insight into Moon's geological activity.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: In-situ Scientific Experiments Instrument for the Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) payload on Chandrayaan 3 Lander -- the first Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology-based instrument on the moon -- has recorded the movements of Rover and other… pic.twitter.com/Sjd5K14hPl — ISRO (@isro) August 31, 2023

Sulphur's presence on the Moon

Chandrayaan-3's Pragyan rover found the presence of Sulphur on the lunar surface in the south pole region. In addition, the rover's instruments also detected various elements on the Moon's surface - aluminum, silicon, calcium, and iron. The discovery of these elements will help scientists develop a better understanding of lunar geochemistry.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: In-situ Scientific Experiments Another instrument onboard the Rover confirms the presence of Sulphur (S) in the region, through another technique. The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectroscope (APXS) has detected S, as well as other minor elements. This… pic.twitter.com/lkZtz7IVSY — ISRO (@isro) August 31, 2023

Remarkable distance coverage

In just 10 days, the Chandrayaan-3 covered over 100 metres of lunar terrain through its Pragyan rover that moves at a speed of 1cm per second.

Also read: Decoding The Role Of Automatic Landing Sequence In Chandrayaan-3's Success

Lunar plasma

ISRO posted on X than the lander had conducted the "first-ever measurements of the near-surface lunar plasma environment" of the south polar region; finding it "relatively sparse."

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: In-situ Scientific Experiments Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive Ionosphere and Atmosphere - Langmuir Probe (RAMBHA-LP) payload onboard Chandrayaan-3 Lander has made first-ever measurements of the near-surface Lunar plasma environment over the… pic.twitter.com/n8ifIEr83h — ISRO (@isro) August 31, 2023

Plasma refers to charged particles that may be present in the Moon's atmosphere and could disrupt communication between the lander and the ISRO team. The fact that it is sparse means it will not cause much disturbance to radio communication.

Vikram's hop

Vikram lander performed a "hop experiment" before it was put to sleep in early September. According to ISRO, Vikram was "commanded to fire its engines, it rose up by about 40cm and landed at a distance of 30-40cm." ISRO claimed that this means the spacecraft could be used to bring samples back to earth in the future.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: 🇮🇳Vikram soft-landed on 🌖, again! Vikram Lander exceeded its mission objectives. It successfully underwent a hop experiment. On command, it fired the engines, elevated itself by about 40 cm as expected and landed safely at a distance of 30 – 40 cm away.… pic.twitter.com/T63t3MVUvI — ISRO (@isro) September 4, 2023

The space agency was supposed to try to establish contact with Chandrayaan-3 on September 22 but decided to delay it to a later date. If the lander wakes up, scientists could continue conducting experiments.

What do you think about about Chandrayaan-3's achievements? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science , keep reading Indiatimes.com .

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Chandrayaan-3

India has started its third Moon mission, with the goal of becoming the first to land near the Moon’s little-explored south pole. The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, which included an orbiter, lander, and rover, lifted out from the Sriharikota space center at 14:35 on Friday (09:05 GMT).

The Chandrayaan-3 mission is the third in the Chandrayaan program, a series of lunar exploration missions created by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The mission, which will be launched on July 14, 2023, will comprise of a lunar lander named Vikram and a lunar rover named Pragyan, both of which were launched aboard Chandrayaan-2 in 2019.

On July 14, 2023, Chandrayaan-3 was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre. On 5 August, the spacecraft entered lunar orbit, and the lander landed near the lunar south pole on 23 August at 18:03 IST (12:33 UTC), making India the fourth country to safely land on the Moon and the first to do so near the lunar south pole. The lander hopped and relocated itself 30-40 cm (12-16 in) from its landing spot on September 3.

ISRO’s mission objectives for the Chandrayaan-3 mission are:

• Engineering and implementing a lander to land safely and softly on the surface of the Moon.
• Observing and demonstrating the rover’s driving capabilities on the Moon.
• Conducting and observing experiments on the materials available on the lunar surface to better understand the composition of the Moon.

After completing all of its missions, the rover was placed to sleep on September 3. According to ISRO, its batteries were charged and the receiver was left on in preparation for the upcoming lunar night. “The rover’s payloads are turned off and the data it collected has been transmitted to Earth via the lander”, added the announcement. The lander and rover aboard Chandrayaan-3 were only expected to operate for one lunar daylight period, or 14 Earth days, and the on-board electronics were not built to resist the Moon’s overnight temperatures of −120 °C (−184 °F). The lander and rover did not answer to their wake-up calls on September 22nd, and by September 28th, neither had responded, lowering hopes for future surface operations.

On September 3, Vikram activated its engines for a brief ‘hop’ on the lunar surface, climbing 40 cm (16 in) and translating a similar distance laterally across the surface. The experiment exhibited skills that could be utilized in future sample return missions. The equipment and rover deployment ramp were withdrawn and redeployed following the hop.

Mission life

• Propulsion module: Carries lander and rover to 100-by-100-kilometre (62 mi × 62 mi) orbit, with operation of experimental payload for up to six months.
• Lander module: one lunar daylight period (14 Earth days).
• Rover module: one lunar daylight period (14 Earth days).

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Chandrayaan - 3 [Latest Updates for UPSC]

India’s third lunar mission, Chandrayaan – 3 made history on August 23, 2023, by successfully achieving a soft landing on the south pole of the moon. With this, India became the first nation to land on the moon’s south pole and the fourth (after Russia, the US and China) to land successfully on Earth’s only natural satellite. In this article, you will learn all you need to know about the Chandrayaan III mission for the UPSC exam . This topic is important for the science and technology segment of the UPSC syllabus.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission

The Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO ) had undertaken two previous missions to the moon, namely, the Chandrayaan I and the Chandrayaan II. Chandrayaan-1 was launched in 2008 and lasted till 2009 after communications to it were lost. The mission, among other things, tested a crash landing on the lunar surface. Chandrayaan-2 , launched in 2019 attempted a soft landing on the moon but failed. The third mission, Chandrayaan-3 took into account the drawbacks and lessons learnt from the second mission and successfully achieved soft landing.

Objectives of Chandrayaan 3 Mission

• To demonstrate a safe and soft landing on the lunar surface
• To demonstrate rover roving on the moon
• To conduct in-situ scientific experiments

Chandrayaan III Features

Chandrayaan 3 mission’s lander is named Vikram and the rover Pragyan, like those of the second mission.

• The mission consists of a lander module, a propulsion module, and a rover.
• SHAPE has the objective of exploring exo-planets for habitability by studying reflected light. 
• Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature
• Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) for measuring the seismicity around the landing site
• Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate the plasma density and its variations
• A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA for lunar laser ranging studies
• Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS)
• Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS)
• The advanced technologies present in the payloads help in conducting scientific experiments on the moon.
• The mission’s life is one lunar day or 14 earth days.
• The budget of the Chandrayaan-3 mission is Rs 615 crore.

Chandrayaan 3 Mission Timeline

• Chandrayaan-3 mission took off on July 14, 2023 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota, A.P.
• On August 5, the mission entered the lunar orbit.
• On August 17, the lander module separated from the propulsion module.
• Deboosting is the slowing down of the spacecraft in an orbit where the Perilune (closest point to the Moon) is 30 km, and the farthest point (the Apolune) is 100 km from the landing site. 
• This process is necessary for the proper landing of the spacecraft.
• On August 23, the lander landed at around 69.36°S and 32.34°E (between Manzinus C and Simpelius N craters) on the south pole of the moon.
• On August 24, the rover Pragyan started its exploration.
• Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is a scientific method using intense laser pulses to analyse material composition.

How is Chandrayaan 3 Different from Chandrayaan 2?

Many changes and improvements were made to the third lunar mission taking into account the lessons learnt from the failed soft landing mission of Chandrayaan-II. Major changes included strengthening the legs of the lander, enhancing fuel reserves and expanding the landing site. Previously, the Vikram lander of Chandrayaan-2 had lost control and communication during descent, which caused it to crash on the moon’s surface. Chandrayaan 3 focused on a failure-based design approach to foresee and prevent potential mishaps.

• The landing area was expanded giving flexibility to soft-land safely within a larger designated region on the surface of the moon.
• Vikram was equipped with more fuel enabling it to travel more towards the landing site.
• Chandrayaan 2 had only two solar panels while Chandrayaan-3 has four.
• The lander’s speed was continuously monitored by an instrument called Laser Doppler Velocimeter onboard the mission that sent laser beams to the lunar surface to calculate the Lander’s speed.

Significance of Lunar South Pole

Previous lunar missions have focused on the equatorial region of the moon owing to its favourable terrain. The south pole region is more challenging compared to the equatorial region. The lack of enough sunlight and extreme cold conditions (up to -230 degrees C) lead to difficulties in instrument operation and sustainability. The polar regions may contain water according to scientists. Also, experts think that the craters in these regions contain fossil records of the early planetary system.

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Chandrayaan-3 | Pragyan completed its tasks; rover safely parked and set into sleep mode, says ISRO

Isro chief s. somnath said that they are likely to start the process of putting the rover to sleep in the coming days.

Updated - September 03, 2023 10:39 am IST

Published - September 02, 2023 02:20 pm IST - Sriharikota

This image from ISRO traces the path of the rover as it moved 100 metres from the lander, on the Moon.

The Indian Space Research Organisation said on September 2 night that Chandrayaan-3’s rover Pragyan had completed its assignments and it had been safely parked and set into sleep mode.

“Chandrayaan-3 Mission: The Rover completed its assignments. It is now safely parked and set into Sleep mode. APXS and LIBS payloads are turned off. Data from these payloads is transmitted to the Earth via the Lander,” the space agency posted on X.

The battery is fully charged and the solar panel is oriented to receive the light at the next sunrise expected on September 22, it added.

“Currently, the battery is fully charged .The solar panel is oriented to receive the light at the next sunrise expected on September 22, 2023. The receiver is kept on. Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments! Else, it will forever stay there as India’s lunar ambassador,” the ISRO posted.

• The Chandrayaan-3’s rover, Pragyan, has traversed over 100 metres from the lander Vikram on the surface of the moon.

Earlier in the day, ISRO chairperson S. Somanath, after the launch of the Aditya-L1 , said, “The lander and rover are functioning. Our team, using the scientific instruments, are doing a lot of work. The good news is that the rover has moved 100 metres from the lander.”

Mr. Somnath said that ISRO is likely to start the process of putting the rover to sleep in the coming days. “We are going to start the process of making the rover sleep in the coming one or two days because it has to withstand the night,” he explained.

The lander and the rover, with a mission life of one Lunar day (14 Earth days), have scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the lunar surface. Since its landing on the Moon on August 23, they have carried out many in-situ measurements and taken pictures .

“The lander and the rover will stay on the Moon for 14 days until they get sunlight. When there is no sunlight, a small solar panel, which is on the rover, will generate power to charge the battery for the next 14 days until they get sunlight,” Mr. Somanath had said

Once the Sun sets on the Moon, temperature can plunge below minus 200°C.

“The temperature there goes down to -200 minus degrees. In such an environment, there is no guarantee that the battery, electronics will survive, but we did some tests and we get the feeling that they will survive even in such harsh conditions,” Mr Somnath had said.

• ISRO said on September 2 night that Chandrayaan-3’s rover Pragyan had completed its assignments and it had been safely parked and set into sleep mode.
• The lander and the rover, with a mission life of one Lunar day (14 Earth days), have scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the lunar surface. Since its landing on the Moon on August 23, they have carried out many in-situ measurements and taken pictures.

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Chandrayaan-3

  Syllabus: Science and Technology: Space

  Context: Chandrayaan-3 is India’s upcoming lunar mission, which aims to be the world’s first mission to soft-land near the lunar south pole.

What is Chandrayaan-3 Mission?

Chandrayaan-3 is  India’s third moon mission and is a follow-up of Chandrayaan-2 (2019) which aimed to land a rover on the lunar South Pole . The Mission will have three major modules- the

• Propulsion module ( will carry the lander and rover configuration till 100 km lunar orbit)
• Lander module (capability to soft land and deploy Rover)
• Rover (will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface)

Challenges of landing on the South Pole:

Previous spacecraft have mostly landed near the equatorial region of the Moon, a few degrees latitude north or south of the lunar equator. Landing near the equator is easier and safer due to the hospitable terrain , smooth surface, absence of steep slopes, and ample sunlight for solar-powered instruments.

The lunar south pole, on the other hand, presents a challenging terrain with extreme temperatures and areas that are in permanent shadow, receiving no sunlight .

Why ISRO wants to explore the Moon’s south pole?

• Exploring and confirming the presence of water is essential for future human missions and the potential utilization of lunar resources.
• Scientific Discoveries: The extreme environment and the presence of permanently shadowed regions provide a preserved record of the Moon’s history and the early Solar System .
• By studying the lunar south pole, scientists can gain insights into the materials and conditions that existed during the formation of the Earth-Moon system.
• Global Collaborations : ISRO-NASA successfully confirmed the presence of water from the data taken by Chandrayaan-1. Indo-Japan collaboration, LUPEX aims to send a lander and rover to the Moon’s south pole around 2024.
• Technological Advancements : By undertaking missions to this region, ISRO can develop and demonstrate innovative technologies for soft landing, navigation, resource utilization, and long-duration operations that can be applied in future space missions.

Comparision of  Chandrayaan-1, 2 and 3

About LVM3:

Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3) (previously known as GSLV-MK III) is a  three-stage launch vehicle  consisting of two solid propellants S200 strap-ons on its sides and a core stage comprising L110 liquid stage and C25 cryogenic stage. The vehicle is also dubbed as  one of the heaviest for its ability to carry satellites up to 8,000 kg.

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What is India’s plan to have its own space station and how will it benefit our space programme? (UPSC 2019)

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Q.1 Consider the following statements: (UPSC 2016)

The Mangalyaan launched by ISRO

• is also called the Mars Orbiter Mission
• made India the second country to have a spacecraft orbit the Mars after USA
• made India the only country to be successful in making its spacecraft orbit Mars in its very first attempt

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only (b) 2 and 3 only (c) 1 and 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3

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Chandrayaan 3: Key Findings from Chandrayaan-3's moon landing | Explained

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• Indian scientists have made a significant discovery on the Moon's surface using the Chandrayaan-3 rover.
• They found evidence of an ancient magma ocean, supporting the theory that the Moon's mantle formed from heavier materials sinking inward while lighter rocks created an outer crust.
• This discovery, made in a previously unexplored region, provides new insights into the Moon's geological history and composition.

Chandrayaan-3 makes breakthrough discovery on the lunar surface

India's Chandrayaan-3 mission has made a significant discovery, just before its first anniversary. The Pragyan rover has found that the regolith or lunar soil around the landing site has a uniform elemental composition, mainly composed of ferroan anorthosite rock. This finding supports the theory of an ancient magma ocean on the Moon . The data was obtained from measurements taken by the Alpha Particular X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS), one of the payloads of the Pragyan rover.

Indian scientists behind this breakthrough discovery

The discovery was made by a team of Indian scientists led by Santosh Vadawale from the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad, under the Department of Space .

APXS reveals evidence of ancient magma ocean

The APXS, built by PRL, aims to measure the elemental composition of lunar soil at locations where the rover stopped. The team also discovered evidence of an ancient magma ocean near the lunar south pole. This region was previously unexplored by humans. The scientists stated that their results from Chandrayaan-3 data strengthened the lunar magma ocean hypothesis, suggesting that the Moon's mantle formed as heavier materials sank inward while lighter rocks floated to create an outer crust.

Lunar magma ocean hypothesis, explained

The lunar magma ocean (LMO) hypothesis proposes that the Moon was completely an ocean of magma when it formed. As the magma cooled, heavier minerals like olivine and pyroxene sank to form the inner layers of the Moon, while lighter mineral plagioclase floated to form its outer crust. The prominent occurrence of ferroan anorthosite (FAN) in soil observed by APXS further confirmed this theory.

Pragyan rover's findings support lunar magma ocean theory

The presence of additional magnesium-rich materials suggests that the outer crustal material has mixed with material from the Moon's deeper layers to form soil near the Chandrayaan-3 landing site. The chemical makeup of regolith near the lunar south pole resembles that of soil samples from equatorial and mid-latitude areas, further supporting this theory. Pragyan also provided new details into local geology, revealing a relatively smooth terrain within 50 meters around the landing site with no visible craters or boulders.

APXS's measurements provide insights into Moon's evolutionary history

The analysis from 23 measurements at different locations within 50 meters of the Chandrayaan-3's landing site showed that lunar regolith is uniform in elemental composition. This can serve as a "ground truth" for future remote sensing missions. The new measurements by APXS in this never-before-explored region of the Moon suggests that lunar soil is a mixture of two types of rocks where some part of the material is excavated from deeper layers, providing direct insight into the Moon's evolutionary history.

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Chandrayaan-3 data confirms Moon's surface was once an ocean of magma

Latest chandrayaan-3 data, as reported by isro, has confirmed the theory that states that the lunar surface was once covered by an ocean of magma.

Vikram Lander (Photo: Twitter/@isro)

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