Chandrayaan-3 | Vikram Lander-Pragyan Rover duo have their tasks cutout

Chandrayaan 3's Lander 'Vikram' and rover 'Pragyan' are scheduled to touch down on the lunar surface today evening. The tasks for the duo have been cut out —the lander has the capability to touch down 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.

Here we discuss what the duo will do once they reach the earth's only natural satellite.

The lander and the rover have scientific payloads to conduct experiments on the lunar surface. The main function of the propulsion module was t carry the lander module from the launch vehicle's injection till the final lunar 100km circular polar orbit and separate the two, which it did. Apart from this, the propulsion module also has one scientific payload — Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) — to study the spectral and polari metric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit, as a value addition.

Following are the major specifications of the lander and rover.

The lander has mission life of one Lunar day, which is equivalent to 14 earth days.

It has a mass of 1749.86 kg including the rover.

There are four scientific payloads in it

Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA) will measure the near surface plasma (ions and electrons) density and its changes with time.

Chandra's Surface Thermo physical Experiment (ChaSTE) will carry out the measurements of thermal properties of lunar surface near polar region.

Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) will measure seismicity around the landing site and delineate the structure of the lunar crust and mantle. Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) from NASA is a passive experiment to understand the dynamics of Moon system.

LRA will have seven sensors including Lander Hazard Detection & Avoidance Camera.

Lander has six mechanisms -- lander leg, rover ramp (primary and secondary) rover, ILSA, Rambha & Chaste payloads, umbilical connector protection mehanism, and X- band antenna

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscope (LIBS) propulsion module for qualitative and quantitative elemental analysis.

LIBS will help derive the chemical composition and infer mineralogical composition to further our understanding of lunar-surface.

Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) will determine the elemental composition such as magnesium, aluminium, silicon, potassium, calcium, titanium, iron, of lunar soil and rocks around the lunar landing site.