Chandrayaan 3 rover Pragyan has started conducting in-situ experiments on the lunar surface. Two days after it encountered a four-metre crater and retracted the path around Chandrayaan 3 landing site named Shiv Shakti Point, the rover sent important information regarding the temperature and presence of other elements on the lunar surface.
Here’s the full list of discoveries made by Chandrayaan 3’s Pragyan Rover on the lunar surface near Shiv Shakti Point
In its latest Chandrayaan 3 update, ISRO said that the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) instrument onboard the Pragyan Rover unambiguously confirmed the presence of Sulphur (S) in the lunar surface near the south pole, through the first-ever in-situ measurements.
Al, Ca, Fe, Cr, Ti, Mn, Si, and O (Aluminum, Calcium, Iron, Chromium, Titanium, Manganese, Silicon, and Oxygen) are also detected, as expected. Search for Hydrogen (H) is underway, ISRO said. The presence of Hydrogen, in addition to the already detected Oxygen, may increase the hopes for a probable presence of life on the moon’s surface.
“On August 27, 2023, the Rover came across a 4-meter diameter crater positioned 3 meters ahead of its location. The Rover was commanded to retrace the path. It’s now safely heading on a new path,” ISRO said in an update earlier.
Among the first observations from the ChaSTE payload onboard Vikram Lander are ChaSTE (Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment), which measured the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the pole, to understand the thermal behaviour of the moon’s surface.
ISRO Chairman S Somanath acknowledges the gathering before addressing the media after the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the surface of the moon. (PTI)
When the Indian space scientists initiated the Automated Landing Sequence for Chandrayaan-3 on Wednesday afternoon, they were confident that no matter what, they will successfully land India’s first spacecraft on the Moon.
Over the next one hour, they waited patiently till the clock struck 5.45pm. And then began the final countdown for the much-awaited powered descent. The spacecraft propelled towards the South Pole of the Moon along the path which was already planned for it.
MAJESTIC START: FIRST 11.5 MINUTES
It began with the pivotal ‘Rough Braking Phase’ — moving horizontally across the lunar surface, covering a distance of about 713 km in just 11.5 minutes. All its four throttle-able engines were fired, reducing the spacecraft speed from 1680 m/s to about 358 m/s. From nearly 30 km from the lunar surface, it quickly came down to 7.4 km precisely as planned, as the Lander successfully glided through its most crucial phase.
This was what the mission team was most worried about — the Lander had to switch from its horizontal to vertical movement within a few minutes. This was the point where the ISRO team had faltered last time, and they anticipated that it would not be easy this time either.
The tension in the control room was evident as scientists fidgeted and whispered. But they were certain that the spacecraft would make it. The plethora of simulations that they carried out over the last four years, factoring in all kinds of possible situations, ensured that it did. And the Lander had a majestic start as it glided through the moon’s weak atmosphere, completing 80 per cent of the journey successfully by the time it struck 5.56pm.
The toughest part of the powered descent was now over as scientists at ISRO’s Mission Operation Complex (MOX) clapped in appreciation and broke into smiles. ISRO chief S Somanath, who had been confident about the mission’s success right from the start, was now nodding quietly with eyes fixed on the screen.
The Lander oriented itself to a favourable altitude as the high-resolution camera aboard captured stunning images of the lunar surface which it was about to conquer and compared it with the on-board imagery looking for the precise landing point. The sensors functioned as planned as Chandrayaan-3 began calculating the altitude and velocity over the next three seconds to make calibrations for the final descent.
A scientist who worked on Vladimir Putin’s failed Russian moon mission, Luna-25, has been rushed to hospital after the lander crashed on the moon.
Luna-25 had crashed on moon’s surface while attempting to land on south pole. ( Image Source : X (@SerbianRambler) )
A scientist who served as a key consultant in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s failed moon mission was hospitalised after Moscow’s first lunar expedition in 47 years, Luna-25, failed, reported the Independent. 90-year-old Mikhail Marov was rushed to a hospital following a “sharp deterioration” in his health after the Luna-25 spacecraft went out of control and crashed into the moon, the report added. Sharing pain over the development, he said that the project has been a matter of his life and how can he not worry about it.
“This was perhaps the last hope for me to see a revival of our lunar programme,” he said, according to Reuters, reported Independent.
He added, “It is so sad that it was not possible to land the apparatus,” after the failure of Luna-25.
Notably, Russia launched Luna-25, its first moon mission after 1976 aiming to land on the lunar south pole, where India’s Chandrayaan-3 is also heading. As per the plan, Luna-25 was planned to land before Chandrayaan-3 making Russia the first country to make a soft-landing on the moon’s south pole.
However, Russia’s state space corporation Roskosmos said it lost contact with the craft at 11.57am (GMT) on Saturday after a problem as the craft was shunted into pre-landing orbit. A soft landing had been planned for Monday.
“The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon,” Roskosmos said in a statement, quoted Independent.
The space agency added that a special inter-departmental commission had been formed to investigate the reasons behind the loss of the Luna-25 craft.
Talking to Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, Marov said that he hoped the reasons behind the crash would be discussed and examined rigorously, as per Independent.
“There was a mistake in the algorithms for launching into near-lunar orbit,” he was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail, as quoted by the Independent.
Russia’s first moon mission in 47 years failed when its Luna-25 space craft spun out of control and crashed into the moon after a problem preparing for pre-landing orbit, underscoring the post-Soviet decline of a once mighty space programme.
Russia’s state space corporation, Roskosmos, said it had lost contact with the craft at 11:57 GMT on Saturday after a problem as the craft was shunted into pre-landing orbit. A soft landing had been planned for Monday.
“The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon,” Roskosmos said in a statement.
It said a special inter-departmental commission had been formed to investigate the reasons behind the loss of the Luna-25 craft, whose mission had raised hopes in Moscow that Russia was returning to the big power moon race.
The failure underscored the decline of Russia’s space power since the glory days of Cold War competition when Moscow was the first to launch a satellite to orbit the Earth – Sputnik 1, in 1957 – and Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to travel into space in 1961.
It also comes as Russia’s $2 trillion economy faces its biggest external challenge for decades: the pressure of both Western sanctions and fighting the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two.
Though moon missions are fiendishly difficult, and many U.S. and Soviet attempts have failed, Russia had not attempted a moon mission since Luna-24 in 1976, when Communist leader Leonid Brezhnev ruled the Kremlin.
Russian state television put news of the loss of Luna-25 at number 8 in its line up at noon and gave it just 26 seconds of coverage, after a news about fires on Tenerife and a 4 minute item about a professional holiday for Russian pilots and crews.
FAILED MOONSHOT
Russia has been racing against India, whose Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is scheduled to land on the moon’s south pole this week, and more broadly against China and the United States which both have advanced lunar ambitions.
FILE PHOTO: A picture taken from the camera of the lunar landing spacecraft Luna-25 shows the Zeeman crater located on the far side of the moon, August 17, 2023. Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT./File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
As news of the Luna-25 failure broke, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) posted on X, formerly Twitter, that Chandrayaan-3 was set to land on Aug. 23.
Russian officials had hoped that the Luna-25 mission would show Russia can compete with the superpowers in space despite its post-Soviet decline and the vast cost of the Ukraine war.
“The flight control system was a vulnerable area, which had to go through many fixes,” said Anatoly Zak, the creator and publisher of www.RussianSpaceWeb.com which tracks Russian space programmes.
Zak said Russia had also gone for the much more ambitious moon landing before undertaking a simpler orbital mission – the usual practice for the Soviet Union, the United States, China and India.
While Luna-25 went beyond the earth’s orbit – unlike the failed 2011 Fobos-Grunt mission to one of the moons of Mars – the crash could impact Russia’s moon programme, which envisages several more missions over coming years including a possible joint effort with China.
Russia is racing against India to make an ambitious landing on the moon’s south pole, with its rival having launched its own lunar lander Chandrayaan-3 last month. Space agencies like NASA have detected frozen water in the area’s craters before, but no country has ever ventured there.
Russia launches Moon mission
Russia has reported an “abnormal situation” at its moon-bound spacecraft which launched earlier this month.
Luna-25 is an unmanned robot lander and the country’s first mission to the lunar surface in almost 50 years.
It’s targeting a historic touchdown at the moon’s south pole on Monday, but appears to have run into unspecified trouble while preparing for a pre-landing orbit.
Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, said its specialists were analysing the situation.
No further details have been provided.
It comes a week after the craft’s data-collecting equipment was switched on following its launch from Russia’s Vostochny cosmodrome in the country’s far eastern Amur region.
The size of a small car, it blasted off on a Soyuz rocket and entered the moon’s orbit on Wednesday. It’s since sent back photos of the Zeeman crater, the third deepest in the lunar surface’s southern hemisphere.
Russia hopes when Luna-25 lands, it will spend a year collecting samples of rock and dust to get a sense of whether the moon could support a permanent base for humans.
This snap taken by Luna-25 shows the Zeeman crater on the far side of the moon
Historic trip to find water ice
The region where it’s aiming to land is known for its rough terrain, but is also thought to hold pockets of water ice.
If it does, it could be used for fuel, oxygen, and drinking water, potentially allowing for longer human trips.
Russia is racing against India to make the ambitious landing, with its rival having launched its own lunar lander Chandrayaan-3 last month.
Roscosmos has been keen to prove itself as a “space superpower” since the invasion of Ukraine saw its experts lose access to Western technology.
The crucial manoeuvre took place in the early hours of Tuesday to propel the spacecraft towards the Moon using a slingshot effect.
Chandrayaan-3 was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on Friday, on board the LVM-3 rocket. (ISRO) (HT_PRINT)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Tuesday announced that Chandrayaan-3 has successfully completed its orbits around the Earth and is currently on its way towards the Moon.
“A successful perigee-firing performed at ISTRAC (ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network). ISRO has injected the spacecraft into the translunar orbit,” it said.
The crucial manoeuvre took place in the early hours of Tuesday to propel the spacecraft towards the Moon using a slingshot effect.
“Chandrayaan-3 completes its orbits around the Earth and heads towards the moon,” the national space agency said, adding, “Next stop: the moon. As it arrives at the moon, the Lunar-Orbit Insertion is planned for August 5, 2023,” ISRO said.
According to an ISRO official speaking to PTI, after the trans-lunar injection, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft successfully departed from Earth’s orbit and is now on a trajectory headed towards the Moon. The ISRO had previously announced plans to attempt a soft landing on the lunar surface on August 23.
Following the launch of the Chandrayaan-3 mission to the Moon on July 14, the spacecraft’s orbit was systematically raised in five stages.
