Ahead of the launch of the Chandrayaan-3 Mission, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chief S Somanath said in an exclusive interview with CNBC that India is likely to venture into a new lunar mission with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Under this mission, space scientists would send a lunar rover and lander to explore the southern pole of the Moon.
“We have a success-based design in Chandrayaan-2, but we have prepared a failure-based design in Chandrayaan-3. In case of any problem, Chandrayaan-3 has the capability to move to an alternate landing site,” Somanath said.
He added, “We have expanded the landing area. So, it can land anywhere within that site. We have given more fuel.”
The Indian space agency chief did not confirm the date or time of the mission, but it is expected that the fourth spacecraft will be launched by ISRO in collaboration with Japan by 2026.
ISRO is all set to launch the lunar exploration mission at 2.35 PM on Friday, July 14. The spacecraft will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
Announcing the launch of Chandrayaan-3:
🚀LVM3-M4/Chandrayaan-3 🛰️Mission:The launch is now scheduled for📆July 14, 2023, at 2:35 pm ISTfrom SDSC, SriharikotaStay tuned for the updates!— ISRO (@isro) July 6, 2023
The primary objective of the Chandrayaan-3 mission is to achieve a soft landing on the moon's surface. If the mission goes according to plan, the Indian spacecraft is expected to land on the moon on August 23 or August 24, 2023.
Consisting of an indigenous lander module, Chandrayaan-3 is equipped with a propulsion model and a rover with scientific payloads to land on the lunar surface. Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on lunar probe mission to Chandrayaan-2.
The second Chandrayaan spacecraft failed to land on the lunar surface after making a crash landing on the moon’s surface after deviating from its trajectory. Chandrayaan-2 was expected to land on the Moon's surface on September 6, 2019, but it failed due to an error in the software.
Chandrayaan-1 was launched by India in 2018 and operated until August 2019. This was India's first lunar probe that included an orbiter and an impactor.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
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