India successfully launches its second attempt to reach the Moon

July 14 () –

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully launched the Chandrayaan-3 mission on July 14. Second Indian attempt to land a ship safely on the Moon.

Takeoff took place as scheduled at 0905 UTC from the Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC) in Sriharikota, aboard an LVM3 M4 rocket. After 16 minutes of flight, the spacecraft was separated from its rocket in the precise orbit to start its journey to the Moon. according to the video broadcast.

If the mission is successful, India will become the fourth nation in the world, along with the US, Russia and China, to mark their presence on the Moon. In 2019, India tried to reach the lunar south pole with the Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft, but lost communication before touching ground.

Chandrayaan-3 consists of a 1.7-tonne indigenous Lander Module (LM), a 2.1-tonne Propulsion Module (PM) and a 26-kilo rover with the aim of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for the missions. interplanetary, reports ISRO.

Lander payloads include the Chandra Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure thermal conductivity and temperature; Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) to measure seismicity around the landing site; Langmuir probe (LP) to estimate plasma density and its variations, as well as an array of NASA passive laser retroreflectors accommodates for lunar laser ranging studies.

Regarding the rover’s payloads, an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and a Laser Induced Decay Spectroscope (LIBS) are counted to derive the elemental composition in the vicinity of the landing site.

The lander will have the ability to perform a soft landing at a specific lunar site and deploy the rover which will carry out an in situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface. during the course of its one lunar day mission.

The main function of PM is to transport the LM from launch vehicle injection to the final 100 km lunar circular polar orbit and to separate the LM from PM. In addition to this, the propulsion module also has a value-added science payload that will be operated after separation from the lander.