The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), in a tweet, said: “MOX, ISTRAC, this is Chandrayaan-3, I am feeling lunar gravity.”
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday evening successfully injected the Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft into the lunar orbit, an official said.
According to the official, the firing of the onboard motors began at about 7.15 p.m. and the spacecraft was steered towards the moon orbit.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), in a tweet, said: “MOX, ISTRAC, this is Chandrayaan-3, I am feeling lunar gravity.”
“Chandrayaan-3 has been successfully inserted into the lunar orbit.A retro-burning at the Perilune was commanded from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX), ISTRAC, Bengaluru.The next operation – reduction of orbit – is scheduled for Aug 6, 2023, around 23:00 Hrs. IST.”
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was put into orbit on July 14 in a copybook style by India’s heavy lift rocket LVM3.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission: “MOX, ISTRAC, this is Chandrayaan-3. I am feeling lunar gravity 🌖” 🙂
Chandrayaan-3 has been successfully inserted into the lunar orbit.
A retro-burning at the Perilune was commanded from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX), ISTRAC, Bengaluru.
The spacecraft comprises a propulsion module (weighing 2,148 kg), a lander (1,723.89 kg), and a rover (26 kg). The main object of the mission is to safely send the lander onto the lunar soil. The lander will get separated from the propulsion module a couple of days and later expected to make a soft-landing near the South Pole of the moon on August 23 evening at 5.47 p.m.
The lander will descend to the moon from a height of about 100 km from the moon’s surface. The soft landing is a tricky issue as it involves a series of complex manoeuvres consisting of rough and fine braking. Imaging of the landing site region prior to landing will be done for finding safe and hazard-free zones.
Subsequent to the soft landing, the six-wheeled rover will roll out and carry out experiments on the lunar surface for a period of one lunar day which is equal to 14 earth days. On August 1, Chandrayaan-3 completed orbiting around the earth and headed towards the moon. On that day a successful perigee-firing performed at ISTRAC, ISRO has injected the spacecraft into the translunar orbit.
India’s ‘Bahubali’ rocket LVM3 lifts off with Chandrayaan-3, India’s third moon mission, from Sriharikota, reports VENKATACHARI JAGANNATHAN
India’s heavy lift rocket-LVM3 carrying the 3,897.89 kg Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft blasted off from the Sriharikota spaceport on Friday afternoon.
At about 2.35 p.m. the LVM3 rocket breaking free from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) here began ascending towards the skies with a strong deep growl that reverberated like a thunder roll.
The 43.5 metre tall rocket weighing about 642 ton furiously rushed towards the skies with thick orange flame leaving behind an anaconda like long and thick white smoke.
The rocket is nicknamed as `Bahubali’ as like the well built hero in the successful film lifting a heavy Lingam, the rocket carries the 3.8-tonne Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft.
Just over 16 minutes into its flight, the rocket will sling the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into lunar polar orbit.
From there it will be a long journey for Chandrayaan-3 as the distance between the earth and the moon is about 3.844 lakh km.
The Indian space agency will raise the spacecraft by a series of manoeuvres to put it on Lunar Transfer Trajectory.
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft comprises a propulsion module (weighing 2,148 kg), a lander (1,723.89 kg) and a rover (26 kg), the ISRO said.
Incidentally, the Chandrayaan-2 payload also weighed about 3.8 ton with the orbiter weighing 2,379 kg, the Vikram lander 1,444 kg, including the Pragyan rover 27 kg.
During the Chandrayaan-2 mission ISRO had named the lander as Vikram in memory of country’s space pioneer Vikram Sarabhai and rover Pragyan means wisdom in Sanskrit.
But this time around, ISRO has not officially named the lander and the rover.
Be that as it may, ISRO said the propulsion module has Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and Polari metric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit.
The lander payloads are: Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature; Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) for measuring the seismicity around the landing site; Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate the plasma density and its variations.
A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA is accommodated for lunar laser ranging studies.
On the other hand, the rover will carry: Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of the landing site, ISRO said.
The Indian space agency said, the moon mission is divided into three phases – the earth centric phase (Pre-Launch, Launch and Ascent and Earth-bound Manoeuvre), the Lunar Transfer Phase (Transfer Trajectory), and the Moon Centric Phase (Lunar Orbit Insertion Phase, Moon-bound Manoeuvre Phase, Propulsion Module and Lunar Module Separation, De-boost Phase, Pre-landing Phase, Landing Phase, Normal Phase for Lander and Rover, Moon Centric Normal Orbit Phase -100 km circular orbit- for Propulsion Module).
During the first phase, the LVM3 rocket will carry the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft to space.
Till date, the LVM3 rocket has an impeccable record of six consecutive successful missions. This is the fourth operational flight of LVM3, and aims to launch the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft to Geo Transfer Orbit (GTO).
The lander will get separated from the propulsion module a couple of days after it enters lunar orbit and is expected to make a soft-landing near the South Pole of the moon on August 23 or 24.
The lander will descend to the moon from a height of about 100 km from the moon’s surface.
The soft landing is a tricky issue as it involves a series of complex manoeuvres consisting of rough and fine braking.
Chandrayaan-3 mission: Spacecraft lifts off successfully from Sriharikota
Imaging of the landing site region prior to landing will be done for finding safe and hazard-free zones.
Subsequent to the soft landing, the six-wheeled rover will roll out and carry out experiments on the lunar surface for a period of one lunar day which is equal to 14 Earth days.
The life of the payloads carried by the propulsion module post ejection of the lander is between three and six months.
On the other hand, the mission life of the lander and the rover is 1 Lunar day or 14 earth days, ISRO said.
The success of Chandrayaan-3 mission – soft landing by the lander- will make India the fourth country in the world to land and ride on the Moon surface after the US, Russia and China.
India launched its first Moon mission Chandrayaan-1 in October 2008 using its light rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the second mission was on July 22, 2019 with the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mk III now renamed as LVM3.
The third moon mission is a follow up of the failed Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019 as the lander Vikram crashed on to the moon surface.
As regards the changes made in the lander this time as compared to the one that crash landed on the moon during the Chandrayaan-2 mission, a senior ISRO official told IANS that the lander has four motors instead of five.
The space agency has also carried out some changes in the software.
The LVM3 with a capacity to carry four tons, is a three stage/engine rocket with two strap-on motors powered by solid fuel. The second stage is a core liquid fuel booster and the third is the cryogenic engine.
The 25 seconds hot test was conducted on February 24 at the ISRO Propulsion Complex, Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu…reports Asian Lite News
Indian space agency on Thursday said it had successfully completed the tests to check Chandrayaan-3 — moon spacecraft — to withstand the harsh vibration and acoustic environment that the spacecraft would face during its launch.
According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the tests were conducted during the first week of March 2023 at the test facilities located at the UR Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru.
These tests are an essential part of the qualification and acceptance process for any spacecraft.
These tests were particularly challenging, considering the fact that the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is a composite of three modules viz. Propulsion Module, Lander Module and the Rover module.
The vibration and acoustic tests carried out on the integrated spacecraft have provided sufficient confidence on the structural integrity and survivability in the launch environment, ISRO said.
Last month, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said it had successfully conducted the flight acceptance hot test of the CE-20 cryogenic engine that would power the country’s rocket for the third moon mission — Chandrayaan-3.
According to the space agency, the CE-20 cryogenic engine will power the Cryogenic Upper Stage of the rocket called LVM3-M4.
The 25 seconds hot test was conducted on February 24 at the ISRO Propulsion Complex, Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu.
“All the propulsion parameters during the test were found satisfactory and closely matched with predictions. The cryogenic engine will be further integrated with the propellant tanks, stage structures and associated fluid lines to realise the fully integrated flight cryogenic stage,” ISRO said.
According to ISRO, the Chandrayaan-3 lander successfully underwent EMI/EMC test during January 31-February 2 at the U.R. Rao Satellite Centre, Bengaluru.
The EMI-EMC test is conducted for satellite missions to ensure the functionality of the satellite subsystems in the space environment and their compatibility with the expected electromagnetic levels.
This test is a major milestone in the realisation of the satellites.
Chandrayaan-3 interplanetary mission has three major modules:the Propulsion module, Lander module, and Rover.
The mission’s complexity calls for establishing radio-frequency (RF) communication links between the modules, said ISRO.
During the Chandrayaan-3 lander EMI/EC test, launcher compatibility, antenna polarisation of all RF systems, standalone auto compatibility tests for orbital and powered descent mission phases, and Lander and Rover compatibility tests for post landing mission phase were ensured.
The performance of the systems was satisfactory, the Indian space agency added.
