After a 40-day journey from the Sathish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota and a history of previous space crashes, India’s Chandrayaan-3 has landed on the moon.
The Vikram lander, which had previously experienced a crash on the lunar surface during a previous Chandrayaan mission, has now achieved a successful landing on the moon’s south pole.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced its readiness to activate the automatic landing sequence of the spacecraft. This action would trigger the algorithm that takes over once the spacecraft reaches the designated location, facilitating its landing.
Following its landing, Chandrayaan-3 is anticipated to operate for a two-week period, conducting a series of experiments, including using a spectrometer to analyze the mineral composition of the lunar surface.
Carla Filotico, a partner and managing director at consultancy SpaceTec Partners, noted, “Landing on the south pole (of the moon) would actually allow India to explore if there is water ice on the moon. And this is very important for cumulative data and science on the moon’s geology.”
India’s Prime objective in this mission
Meanwhile, the primary objective of this mission is to showcase the Indian space agency’s capability to execute a gentle landing on the Moon.
India’s earlier attempt with the Chandrayaan-2 mission to land near the south pole in 2019 had failed, resulting in a crash on the lunar surface.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission followed past space crash incidents and has now successfully reached the moon, closely following the Russian space agency’s recent aim to land in the same lunar region.
India has now joined the exclusive group of nations that have accomplished a soft landing on the moon. Prior to the Chandrayaan mission, this group only consisted of Russia, China, and the United States.
Attributed to Vikram Sarabhai, the pioneer of the Indian space program, the Chandrayaan-3 Rover will perform on-site chemical analyses of the lunar surface while in motion. The Vikram lander will deploy the Rover, culminating in a gentle landing at the moon’s south pole.
