Chandrayaan-3 Highlights | Lander establishes communication line with Chandrayaan-2 orbiter: ISRO

The Indian state of Assam's government has directed all schools to organise special assemblies of students to watch live stream of Chandrayaan-3 landing on the moon on Wednesday (August 23), reported PTI. 

The event should be organised in coordination with the Sarba Shiksha Abhiyan, Assam to facilitate viewing of the event by all school students, said the Assam School Education Department. 

SSA Mission Director Om Prakash has also asked the schools to organise the live streaming of the Chandrayaan-3 soft landing within the school premises. 

India is gearing up for the soft-landing of its Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission. But the last 20 minutes right before the scheduled landing are set to become the most nail-biting moments of the mission. 

The soft landing of Vikram lander of Chandrayaan-3 mission will make India the only country in the world to achieve this feat on Moon's south pole and the fourth country to have a lander on Moon after the United States, Russia, and China.

Click here to read more...

"By tomorrow around 6 'o' clock, there will be a soft landing attempted on the Moon...India has tried soft landing there, that is Chandrayaan-2, that mission was successful other than the landing, where we lost Vikram at the last moment...This time all precautions have been taken by ISRO and all lessons have been learnt from the last crash of Vikram. I am very confident that this mission is going to land successfully by 6 PM tomorrow,” said Lt Gen (retd) Anil Kumar Bhatt, Director General of Indian Space Association on the scheduled landing of Chandrayaan-3 on Moon's surface on August 23. 

"Landing on the Moon will provide us with invaluable insights. I am truly thrilled that India is at the forefront of space exploration and the pursuit of sustainable living on the Moon. These are truly exciting times...Filled with enthusiasm for lunar exploration, I'm looking forward to seeing the scientific research that should come out of this landing and the rover taking samples, it is just going to be a great step," Williams said.

The Chandrayaan-3 lander module is set to land on the moon on August 23 at 18.04 hours IST. Live streaming will begin at around 17:27 IST.

Prior to its planned lunar touchdown on Wednesday, the lander module of Chandrayaan-3 made contact with the Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter, establishing an additional communication link with Earth. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) reported that the orbiter welcomed the lander with the friendly message, "welcome, buddy."

“The attempts made so far are successful as per the information received from ISRO. In case there comes any difficulty and the conditions are unsuitable, ISRO has kept enough fuel to sustain it for four more days. It has been made technically strong...”OP Gupta, senior engineer at Nehru Planetarium, told ANI. 

“The high resolution camera installed in Vikram lander will monitor the surface for safe landing from a height of 25km initially...The expectations are that after finding a suitable space it lands timely,” said OP Gupta, senior engineer at Nehru Planetarium told ANI. 

Russian Consul General to South India, Oleg Nikolayevich Avdeev told news agency ANI, "Everybody in India and also myself are all eagerly waiting for tomorrow's event in the lunar orbit. I am sure that it will be a success for the Indian lunar program and the rover will land safely and start functioning...I am sure this will be a very fruitful lunar program for India and it will definitely be a great success and there will be more exploration on the moon."

Speaking on on Chandrayaan 3, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said, "History has been created by India's experts and scientists. Under the leadership of PM Modi, India has been scaling new heights and now we are making an effort to see that the Tiranga is hoisted on the moon."

Indian state Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced that the landing of Chandrayaan-3 on Moon will be telecast live in all state-run shools, reported news agency ANI. The government will specially open the schools for one hour in the evening for the viewing.

“On August 23, at 5.27 pm, the Chandrayaan-3 moon landing process will be telecast live on the ISRO website, YouTube channel and DD National. In such a situation, arrangements should be made for live telecast by organising special meetings in schools and educational institutions from 5.15 to 6.15 pm,” said a government statement.

Bengaluru-based Astronomer Professor Dr RC Kapoor, while speaking to news agency ANI, said that algorithm is bug free and lander design has been made stronger.

"The Lander and the Rover are presently revolving in the pre-landing orbit around the Moon. These (Lander and Rover) have been prepared by examining the situation of the previous time. The algorithm has been made bug-free. Apart from this, the leg mechanism which is a major part of the Lander's design has also been made stronger," he said. 

This will be India's second attempted lunar landing, but in case anything goes awry or any factor regarding the lander module becomes problematic, then the landing will be shifted to August 27, said the Space Applications Centre-ISRO about Chandrayaan-3 on Monday. 

Click Here to read the story 

The landing will get telecasted on public broadcaster DD National TV and ISRO website, along with its YouTube channel, Facebook from 5.27pm on August 23.

ISRO Chairman S Somanath said that he is confident about Chandrayaan 3's successful landing.

"We are confident as everything has been all fine so far and there have been no contingencies faced until this juncture. We’ve done all the preparations and all systems have performed as we needed them to until this stage. Now, we are preparing for the landing with multiple simulations, verification and double verification of systems, checking of instruments’ health is being done on Monday and today," said the chief, while speaking to Indian media outlet.

ISRO has said that if any factor related to the lander module appears unfavourable, then they may postpone the soft landing to August 27. Director of Space Applications Centre-ISRO, Ahmedabad Nilesh M Desai said that the decision related to the landing will be taken on the basis of the conditions on the Moon and the health of the lander module.