The lander and rover for the Chandrayaan-3 mission of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will touch down on the Moon’s surface on Wednesday, August 23.
This mission, as its name suggests, is the third in an Indian lunar exploration program. The last two Chandrayaan satellites experienced a number of issues, so representatives of the Indian space agency will be hoping for a completely successful mission this time.
What will Chandrayaan-3 do as a result? The lander module camera has already captured some lovely photographs of the lunar surface, demonstrating the successful separation from its propulsion module, which remains in lunar orbit. However, the primary objective of the lander and rover is to demonstrate that the ISRO is capable of making a successful soft landing on the Moon.
Four primary scientific instruments, including thermal, atmospheric, and a laser retroreflector array, are housed in the lander unit. High accuracy measurements of the distance between the Earth and the Moon are made using these reflectors.
In essence, the Moon is targeted with a high-power laser, and the time it takes for the light pulse to travel there and return to Earth is recorded. Knowing the speed of light, we can calculate the distance based on the travel time (approximately 2.5 seconds there and back). Additionally, the lander will be able to detect moonquakes, a minor seismic event that happens once a month.
It is believed that more precise figures for the depth of the lunar crust, or its outermost layer, may be computed by using the speed at which the waves move across the Moon to determine its density.
Additionally, the rover has packages of scientific equipment. Its primary objective is to use x-ray spectrometry to determine the lunar surface’s composition.
Previous flights
In essence, the Moon is targeted with a high-power laser, and the time it takes for the light pulse to travel there and return to Earth is recorded. Knowing the speed of light, we can calculate the distance based on the travel time (approximately 2.5 seconds there and back). Additionally, the lander will be able to detect moonquakes, a minor seismic event that happens once a month.
It is believed that more precise figures for the depth of the lunar crust, or its outermost layer, may be computed by using the speed at which the waves move across the Moon to determine its density.
Additionally, the rover has packages of scientific equipment. Its primary objective is to use x-ray spectrometry to determine the lunar surface’s composition.
The purpose of the probe was to get the ground ready for a future lunar rover, but it also allowed the orbiter to find liquid water on the moon’s surface. It had long been assumed that water existed on the Moon as ice, tucked away in dark craters at its poles.
Large quantities of lunar surface particles were launched into the atmosphere by the penetrator’s fast impact. It is possible to establish these particles’ chemical composition by examining the way sunlight is dispersed by them.
Even though communication was lost barely halfway through the original mission timetable, the Chandrayaan-1 mission was deemed a success.
The second Chandrayaan project was designed to land a lander and rover on the moon’s surface. The combined Vikram lander and Pragyan rover were released to the moon’s surface two and a half weeks after the orbiter arrived there in 2019.
Unfortunately, in a situation akin to that of Chandrayaan-1, communication was lost, and the two spacecraft collided with the ground while weighing a combined 1.5 tonnes, or about the same as a saloon car.
Third time lucky
Will the third expedition be exempt from the alleged curse that afflicted the first two? Things are looking really promising thus far. On July 14, 2023, the mission was launched, and five weeks later, it is still in contact with Earth.
But the real test will come with the lander and rover’s deployment. If successful, India will join the Soviet Union, the United States, and China as the only other nations to have had a functioning rover on the lunar surface.
This would greatly enhance its reputation for scientific space launches and may provide the agency more negotiating power when it comes to funding the development of upcoming missions.
This mission’s cost of US$75 million (£59 million), which is remarkably low for a research mission leaving the planet, is also a crucial component. It is similar to what a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch would cost.
It is worthwhile to contrast this price with that of the current NASA Artemis project, whose future scheduled launch costs are estimated to be US$800 million (£629 million), not to mention the $13.1 billion (£10.3 billion) in development expenses incurred over the previous 20 years.
In orbit over the Moon, the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is still operational. This implies that Chandrayaan-3 has options in the event that something goes wrong because the other satellite can serve as a backup communications platform, lowering the likelihood of a mission failure.
If successful, the lander and rover’s data will aid researchers in identifying prospective areas for future lunar bases and landings. For any larger structures, understanding the landing location is crucial because there is much less room for error given the higher expenses.
It is a fantastic technique to reduce the mass that needs to be launched from Earth to be able to construct buildings out of local resources like lunarcrete, which uses lunar dirt as a cement-like building material. But it also needs the appropriate materials to be close by.
Personally, I’m rooting for Chandrayaan-3 to succeed because it looks like private businesses are vying for space missions and exploration more and more.
It is possible that the scientific discovery will be overlooked, treated as an afterthought, or even hampered if the major end objective is a commercial one, such as resource collection or tourism.
Therefore, every accomplishment by a space agency increases the amount of publicly available, freely usable data.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
