What if Chandrayaan-3 misses soft landing today? Here are 3 possibilities

A few hours from now, Chandrayaan-3 will make history. It will attempt to achieve a feat which no other moon mission ever has - a soft landing on the moon’s south pole. All the phases of India’s lunar mission have been achieved successfully and now all eyes are on the successful landing of Vikram Lander, which also carries the Pragyan rover, which will conduct a study on the lunar surface for one Lunar day or 14 Earth days.

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On 22 July 2019, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched its ambitious Chandrayaan-2 mission. The mission was also to attempt a soft landing on the moon’s south pole.

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However, the Vikram lander crashed when it deviated from its intended trajectory while attempting to land on 6 September 2019. According to a failure analysis report submitted to ISRO, the crash was caused by a software glitch.

Ahead of the launch, ISRO’s Chairman S Somnath assured that no such software glitch would be faced by Chandrayaan-3. He said that the spacecraft is developed in a fail-safe manner keeping in mind what went wrong with Chandrayaan-2. Even if all the sensors fail, the engines stop, Vikram would still be able to land, he said.

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But what if there is still a miss? Here are three alternative plans that can be carried out.

1. Second attempt for soft-landing on August 24

Chandrayaan 3 will make the second attempt to soft-land on the south pole of the moon on August 24.

At 5:45 pm IST, the soft landing process of Chandrayaan-3 will start after internal checks and when the sun rises on the moon.

Starting from 5.45 pm, it will be a crucial time of 17 minutes in which the lander will fire its engines and prepare for the landing. The spacecraft will have to become vertical from horizontal for the landing.

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“If everything fails, if all the sensors fail, nothing works, still it (Vikram) will make a landing. That’s how it has been designed — provided that the propulsion system works well. We have also made sure that if two of the engines (in Vikram) don’t work this time also, it will still be able to land,” said the chairman.

2. Wait till the next lunar sunrise

If there is a miss in the soft landing of the Chandrayaan 3 today, the window for more attempts will remain open for 14 days as a lunar day is equivalent to 14 Earth days. The next window will open when the sun rises on the moon next.

3. Chandrayaan-3 will hover at its current position

As Chandrayaan 3 waits for the next attempt, it will hover in its current orbit of 25 km * 134 km.

“If it doesn’t land tomorrow owing to whatever factor, whether the health of the lander or a break in communication, we will attempt the landing again within 24-50 hours. Meanwhile, alternate landing sites will also be considered,” S Somanath said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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