Chandrayaan-3 mission to be launched on July 14; soft-landing on lunar surface expected on August 23 or 24

The Indian Space Research Organisation announced on Thursday that the Chandrayaan3 mission is scheduled to be launched at 235 pm on July 14 with the lander expected to softland on the surface of the Moon on August 23 or 24Chandrayaan3 is a followon mission to Chandrayaan2 to demonstrate endtoend capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surfaceThe Chandrayaan3 spacecraft which will be launched by LVM3 Launch Vehicle MarkIII earlier referred as GSLV Mk III is a composite of three modules propulsion lander and rover which is housed inside the landerLVM3M4Chandrayaan3 MissionThe launch is now scheduled for July 14 2023 at 235 pm IST from SDSC Sriharikota the national space agency headquartered here said in a tweetSecretary of the Department of Space and ISRO Chairman Somanath S told reporters that the space agency would attempt softlanding of the lander on August 23 or August 24ISRO officials noted that the mission life of the lander is one lunar day which is equal to 14 Earth daysThe date for softlanding is decided based on when there is sunrise on the Moon While landing sunlight must be there There is sunlight on the Moon for 1415 days and for the next 1415 days there is no sunlight they notedChandrayaan3 mission carries scientific instruments to study the thermophysical properties of the lunar regolith lunar seismicity lunar surface plasma environment and elemental composition in the vicinity of the landing siteWhile the scope of these scientific instruments on the lander and the rover would fit in the theme of Science of the Moon another experimental instrument will study the spectropolarimetric signatures of the Earth from the lunar orbit which would fit in the theme of Science from the Moon according to ISRO officialsIn March this year the Chandrayaan3 spacecraft successfully completed the essential tests that validated its capability to withstand the harsh vibration and acoustic environment that the spacecraft would encounter during its launchThe propulsion module which has Spectropolarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth SHAPE payload to study the spectral and polarimetric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit will carry the lander and rover configuration till 100 km of lunar orbitLander payloads are Chandras Surface Thermophysical Experiment to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity for measuring the seismicity around the landing site and Langmuir Probe to estimate the plasma density and its variationsA passive Laser Retroreflector Array from the US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA is also accommodated for lunar laser ranging studiesRover payloads are Alpha Particle Xray Spectrometer and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of the landing siteThe lander will have the capability to softland at a specified lunar site and deploy the rover which will carry out insitu chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobilityThe main function of the propulsion module is to carry the lander module from launch vehicle injection till final lunar 100 km circular polar orbit and separate it Apart from this the propulsion module also has one scientific payload as a value addition which will be operated post separation of the lander module it was notedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever