Chandrayaan-3: What is soft landing? Will India's lunar mission achieve this feat this time?

Chandrayaan-3 soft landing:The countdown begins. India’s lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 is all set to land on the moon’s South Pole on August 23 around 6:04 pm IST. The India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) shared the update of the Chandrayaan-3 mission on X (formerly Twitter) and thanked everyone for their wishes and positivity.

Ahead of the landing, the space agency said the Mission Operations Complex (MOX), located at the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), is buzzing with energy and excitement.

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Chandrayaan-3 is the third instalment of the Chandrayaan series and India's second attempt to achieve a soft landing on the Moon's surface. Only three countries have successfully landed spacecraft on the airless lunar surface.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission is currently in Phase-7, which is the Pre-Landing Phase. Phase-7 began on Monday, with the second and final deboosting operation being successfully carried out on August 20.

What is soft landing on moon?

A 'soft landing' takes place when a spacecraft lands intact on the lunar surface and does not, intentionally or otherwise, crash. The Moon Lander Vikram, which separated from its orbiting mothership, has already performed two manoeuvres to lower its altitude for a perfect touchdown.

On April 11, Israel attempted a soft landing near the lunar South Pole of the Moon. The Israeli craft, however, faced problems during its landing and crashed on the Moon.

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Israel's attempt at a Moon landing failed at the last minute when the craft suffered an engine failure as it prepared to land.

Chandrayaan-3: What is different this time?

Chandrayaan-3 consists of an indigenous Lander module (LM), a Propulsion module (PM), and a Rover with the objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for interplanetary missions. The Lander will have the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the Rover which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility.

The propulsion module will carry the Lander from launch vehicle injection to the final lunar 100 km circular polar orbit and separate the two.

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Ahead of the Chandrayaan-3 launch, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman S Somanath on Monday said that they “will be able to do a soft landing on the Moon” during the mission.

Chandrayaan-3's technology improved its design to ensure that it achieved a successful soft landing this time. Some notable changes are:

Simplified payload

While Chandrayaan-2's orbiter carried nine in-situ instruments, Chandrayaan-3's propulsion module will house a single instrument called 'spectro-polarimetry of habitable planet earth' (SHAPE). SHAPE will analyse Earth's spectrum to generate data on habitable exoplanets, contributing to the study of exoplanetary habitability and the search for potential life beyond our Solar System.

Enhanced Lander capabilities

Based on the lessons learned from Chandrayaan-2, Chandrayaan-3 incorporates "lander hazard detection & avoidance cameras" to assist in coordination with the orbiter and mission control during the lander's descent to the lunar surface. Chandrayaan-3 will feature two such cameras compared to the single camera on its predecessor.

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Chandrayaan-2 was launched on 22 July 2019 with an attempt to ‘soft-land’ on the lunar surface. However, the orbiter’s attempt to soft-land a robotic module named Vikram on the moon’s surface failed on 7 September 2019. A successful landing would have made history for India as it would have been the world’s first lunar landing near its unexplored South Pole.

Chandrayaan-1 was launched on 22 October 2008, a major boost to the country’s indigenous space programme. It was launched to survey the lunar surface over a two-year period and to produce a complete map of the chemical composition at the surface and three-dimensional topography.

(With inputs from agencies)

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