When and where will the Indian probe Chandrayaan-3 land on the Moon?

Next week, two probes will land lunelune, a few hundred kilometers away. On this Monday, the first Russian vehicle Luna-25 will land. Two or three days later, it will be the turn of the Indian probe Chandrayaan-3, whose moon landing is scheduled between August 23 and 24. These two missions are clearly not in competition, but complementary. While the Russians will stay on the Moon for at least a year, the Indians will leave there a small rover designed to travel about 500 metres, with a lifespan limited to only a few days.

From Takeoff to Landing on the Moon: The 42-Day Mission

Chandrayaan-3 launched from Satish-Dhawan Space Center on July 14 To revolve aroundTo revolve around Around the Moon on August 5th. The lander separated from its cruise stage on August 17 and is now on its way to its landing site. The lander will be required to make several orbits around the moon before it can begin to descend on the lunar surface. Its “moon landing” is scheduled for August 23 to 24, near the south pole, in a field located between Manzinus C and Simpelius N craters, at about 70°. latitudelatitude South On August 16, the lander was in a nearly circular orbit around the Moon near landnear land 153 kilometers away and a climaxclimax 163 kms away.

While waiting to land, the Indian probe takes several pictures of the Moon, either from the dark side or from the visible side. two days ago,ISROISRO (Indian Space Agency) has posted a series of images of the far side of the Moon taken on 15 and 17 August.

Article by Remy Decort published on 08/08/2023

India, which reached around the moon a few days ago, is preparing to land on its surface on 23 August. To characterize the event, the probe obtained several snapshots of the surface. While these pictures are nothing short of impressive, they do remind us that India could become the fourth country to successfully land on the Moon before Europe.

Twenty days after its launch, the lunar probe Chandrayaan-3 orbited the Moon and entered it on 5 August. To celebrate the event, the probe sent us its first images of the lunar surface, although they are of no scientific interest.

The objective of this third lunar mission of India is to make people forget the failure of the previous mission. In September 2019, Chandrayaan-2, along with a small rover, crashed into a field between craters on the Moon’s surface. manzinus c at prime numbersAt about 70 degrees south latitude.

Can India become the fourth country to land on the Moon?

India aspires to become the fourth country to land on the Moon after the former USSR, the United States and China, and thus overtake the Europeans. The Chandrayaan-3 probe aims to land on the South Pole of the Moon on August 23 at 12:17 pm. UTCUTC,

To avoid repeating the previous failure, the causes of which are known, the Indian Space Agency (ISRO) made several modifications to the Chandrayaan-3 lander. It now weighs 1,752 kg (including collectivelycollectively of the rover), about 300 kg more than the mission Chandrayaan-2Chandrayaan-2, It is equipped with sturdier landing legs, larger solar panels and has five motors instead of four. In addition, it carries more fuel and is capable of landing VitseVitse more effect. His ComputerComputer The board is equipped with new piloting algorithms.

The 26 kg Pragyan rover will travel aboard the lander. A few days after its arrival, it will be put into service on the Moon. It will reach the lunar surface as soon as it descends from the lander along the ramp. Equipped with six wheels, the rover will survey and send around the landing site, Via Vikram, photographs and soil analysis.

Unlike previous missions, Chandrayaan-3 does not have an orbiter, but a propulsion module. In fact, since the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is still in working condition, ISRO will use it for its communication needs with Earth.

An ambitious mission to the South Pole

Vikram carries four scientific instruments to study the thermal properties of the lunar surface, measure changes in the local atmosphere yardyard and to measure the plasma over time as well as the seismic activity at the landing site crustcrust And this layerlayer underground. the fourth instrument is a catadioptrecatadioptre provided by NASANASA allowing telemetrytelemetry Laser. It will be used to verify distance measurements to the Moon still made by reflectors left on the Moon during the Apollo program.

As far as Pragyan rover is concerned, it has two rovers spectrometerspectrometer : a LIBS similar to those on board martian roversmartian rovers NASA (from Curiosity and Perseverance) focuses on detecting the chemical and mineralogical composition of the surface, as well as a second spectrometer to determine the elemental composition of the surface. magnesiummagnesiumD’aluminumaluminumOf siliconesiliconeOf potassiumpotassiumOf calciumcalciumOf titaniumtitanium you have to do

The mission’s propulsion module contains a core instrument that will analyze Earth’s spectrum to generate data as if it were a exoplanetexoplanet,