Chandrayaan-3, India’s third moon mission will be attempting to land softly at 6:04 pm today on the south pole of the moon.
If everything goes according to the plan, the lander of the Chandrayaan-3, Vikram will land at 6:04 pm, some hours after the rover, Pragyan rolls out of its belly.
On Tuesday, the ISRO stated that the mission was on schedule, systems were undergoing regular checks and smooth sailing was continued.
ISRO today posted a tweet which says, “All set to initiate the Automatic Landing Sequence (ALS).
Awaiting the arrival of Lander Module (LM) at the designated point, around 17:44 Hrs. IST.
Upon receiving the ALS command, the LM activates the throttleable engines for powered descent. The mission operations team will keep confirming the sequential execution of commands. The live telecast of operations at MOX begins at 17:20 Hrs. IST.”
But even though moon missions have been going on since a long time, yet a challenge remains around the craft’s soft landing on the surface of the moon.
Well, a landing is said to be a soft landing when the spacecraft or an airplane lands in a gradual and controlled way without damaging it. But, the lack of atmosphere in space makes it difficult for the spacecraft to slow down.
Reverse flow of hot gases and dust is caused by landing made by firing engines which, in result, disrupts the system.
Due to uneven mass distribution, the moon’s gravity influences the spacecraft’s orbit. Knowledge about temperatures is required from 100 km away.
Sometimes, signals become weak due to astral background noise that the antenna picks up. Also, every message takes time to reach between the mission control and spacecraft.