Chandrayaan-3: After landing, Vikram and Pragyan to wait for lunar dust to settle 

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has confirmed that its Chandrayaan-3 lunar-landing mission is on track and the soft-landing will happen at 6:04pm IST on Wednesday (August 23). "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," ISRO tweeted.

The landing process will see the Vikram lander initially reduce its horizontal velocity, re-orient itself for vertical landing and then reduce its vertical velocity to soft-land at a safe speed. In a span of 19 minutes, the craft is meant to slow itself from an initial velocity of 1.6km/sec to 1-2 m/sec.

However, the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover would not immediately begin their scientific exploration and experiments. "Just like the excitement has to settle down among the Indian people, the fine talcum powder-like Lunar dust that is kicked up from the landing must settle down. Post-landing, lunar dust can fog up the view of the lander cameras. Since the lunar gravity is barely 1/6th of Earth's gravity, it could take a few hours for the dust to settle. Only after the dust settles down, can the lander commence its tasks, charge itself by harnessing solar power and then open the ramp to eject the Pragyan rover," Dr Mylswamy Annadurai, the former director of ISRO's satellite Centre, told WION.

He added, once the rover begins to traverse the lunar surface, the six-wheeled Pragyan would leave India's indelible imprint on the moon, as its wheels carry the Indian State emblem (an adaptation of the Sarnath Lion capital of King Ashoka) and the logo of the Indian space agency.

While Vikram and Pragyan have a planned mission life of 1 lunar day (14.75 days on Earth), there is a possibility that the duo could live longer. ISRO has designed its lander and rover to harness solar power and charge its onboard batteries, but that would be possible only during the lunar day. After lunar day, comes lunar night when temperatures drop severely and go well below -150ºC. If the lander and rover survive the lunar night (14.75 earth days), it might be possible for them to get revived when the lunar day breaks and solar power is available, multiple ISRO officials told WION.

In fact, ISRO has planned the lunar landing at the start of the lunar day, so that the lander rover can harness solar power and work for the planned operational life of 14 earth days or one lunar day.

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