2023-08-24 14:45:58
India has staged a first-rate technological feat, getting its spacecraft’s descent module to make a soft landing on the Moon. The country thus enters the short list of nations that have achieved this feat. These days there has also been a sad failure, that of the catastrophe of the Russian probe Luna-25.
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft consists of a descent and landing module (a “lander” or lander) weighing more than 1,700 kilograms, a 2,148-kilogram propulsion module and a 26-kilogram rover.
Chandrayaan-3 was launched into space on July 14, 2023, using an LVM3 M4 launcher. The ship went into orbit around Earth. The orbital maneuvers to reach the Moon began the next day, achieving an orbit of 41,762 kilometers by 173. In successive days, the orbit was raised. For communications between the ship and the mission control center in India, ISRO (India’s space agency) used its own monitoring stations but also had the help of the European and American space agencies (ESA). and NASA).
On August 1, the spacecraft reached a translunar orbit, 369,328 kilometers by 288.
On August 5, thanks to its trajectory taking it close enough to the Moon, the spacecraft managed to enter lunar orbit, going on to revolve around the Moon in an orbit of 18,074 kilometers by 164, as planned. This was the third time that ISRO had succeeded in getting a spacecraft into orbit of the Moon. Besides, he already did it on Mars.
In the following days, various maneuvers modified the orbit as desired, in order to ensure that the spacecraft flew over the area of the Moon’s South Pole at a low altitude.
The propulsion module separated from the lander on August 17. The lander, after carrying out a complex braking operation that brought it to an orbit of 134 kilometers by 25 on August 20, carried out the final descent maneuver on August 23. The vehicle landed at a point in the area of the lunar South Pole.
Artist’s impression of the Chandrayaan-3 lander perched on lunar soil. (Image: ISRO)
At the time of writing these lines, the robotic rover has already descended from the lander and has begun to circulate on the lunar soil.
Both the lander and the rover carry abundant scientific instruments with which they will make detailed observations of the environment.
With its instrumentation, the lander will measure the density of near-surface plasma and how that density changes over time, examine the thermal properties of the lunar surface in that polar region, conduct seismic studies and studies on the structure of the crust and mantle. moles, and other analyses.
The rover, for its part, will carry out chemical analyzes of stones and soil from some of the sites through which it passes.
Coinciding with the Chandrayaan-3 mission, this month of August the Russian probe Luna-25 was also developed, very different both in design and in technology from the previous probe in the series, Luna-24, which carried out in 1976 a successful mission to take lunar samples and send them to Earth.
Unfortunately, Luna-25, which was launched into space on August 10, 2023 and entered lunar orbit six days later, suffered a problem during an orbital maneuver and ended up crashing into the Moon on August 19. (Source: NCYT from Amazings)
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