Lander and Rover
Spectacular launch of the Chandrayan III will take to the moon, the most ambitious experiment of the moon mission. India is aiming to soft land on the moon and perform certain experiments with the moon rover. The lander is named Vikram and the Rover is called Pragyan
A propulsion module will carry the lander-rover configuration to a 100-km lunar orbit. Once the ‘Vikram’ lander module makes it safely to the moon, it will deploy ‘Pragyan’ which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility
Vikram – moon lander with slight modification in leg strength will help payloads from Chandrayan 3 to land on Moon
The lander will ensure soft landing of the rover and other payloads about 70 degrees from the Moon’s south pole. The lander and propulsion module will detach from the spacecraft when it reaches an orbit 100 x 100 km away from the surface.
Vikram lander features a new instrument to precisely calculate the spacecraft’s descent speed, stronger legs to handle a higher landing speed, and a wider landing site of 4km by 2.5km.
Once the lander and propulsion module are separated from the spacecraft, the latter will steer the ensemble from launch vehicle injection orbit to lander separation.
The technologies used in this process will help in other inter-planetary missions. India, in June 2023, signed Artemis Accords with NASA which will determine the parameters of human space flight missions. This Chandrayan 3 mission would turn out beneficial for such future missions.
Scientific experiments
The lander, rover and the propulsion module will have payloads for performing experiments designed to give scientists new insights into the characteristics of earth’s lone natural satellite.
The lander will have four payloads — Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA), Chandra’s Surface Thermo physical Experiment (ChaSTE), Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) and the LASER Retroreflector Array (LRA).
The six-wheeled rover will have two payloads — the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and the LASER Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS).
India will be the first country to map the south pole of the moon. The mission will be a leap forward for the Indian Space Programme
-Dr Siddhivinayak Barve
Editor, ScienceNow Digital
