India counts down to third lunar exploration mission
Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 sets off for the moon this month – a further step in the country's 60-year-old space odyssey.
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Chandrayaan-3, slinging a lander and buggy, will be launched by India’s most powerful rocket – 43.5 metres long and weighing 640 tons – after the launch window opens for a week on 12 July.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that 23 August was the likely date for the lander’s touchdown on the far side of the moon, with the lunar rover on board.
The spacecraft will have the capability to soft land and deploy the 26-kilo robotic buggy.
ISRO chief Sreedhara Somanath said Chandrayaan-3 will be more durable than its predecessor and will have complex back-up systems to navigate glitches.
Chandrayaan-3 is ISRO’S latest attempt to land on the moon before sending astronauts on a multibillion-euro lunar expedition to display India’s fast-growing technological muscle.
#WATCH | ISRO chief S Somnath says, "Currently the Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft is fully integrated. We have completed the testing...Currently, the window of opportunity for launch is between 12-19th July...We will announce the exact date after all the tests are completed..." pic.twitter.com/FVT8uHkJVU
— ANI (@ANI) June 28, 2023
Moon curse
In 2008, India launched Chandrayaan-1, but nine months later the 44-million-euro maiden moon mission lost contact after its electronics spectacularly failed.
The 1.3-ton spacecraft operated for 312 days instead of the planned two years but its orbiter achieved key objectives before it was lost in outer space.
The mission was, however, credited with the discovery of water in lunar minerals, stimulating debate in the scientific community.
Almost a decade later, trouble again dogged India’s lunar programme after Chandrayaan-2 – comprising an orbiter, lander and rover – went into lunar orbit on 20 August 2019.
The spacecraft cradling the six-wheeled buggy lost control while descending and crashed onto the moon’s surface after snags in its braking rockets.
The wreckage was spotted by the unscathed orbiter, the government said, almost a month after the crash. ISRO’s then-chief K.Sivan broke down in public on seeing the debris
Technological leap
Chandrayaan-2, at a cost of 107 million euros, was billed as a technological leap as it was designed both to explore the moon’s dark side and carry out other assignments in a single mission.
The moon claimed its latest victim on 25 April when the private Japanese moon spacecraft Hakuto-R crashed while trying to put a UAE buggy on the surface of earth’s closest neighbour, 382,500 kilometres out in space.
But ISRO received a boost after India this week signed the US-led Artemis Accords which aim to foster international cooperation on exploration of the Moon, Mars and beyond.
Sky is not the limit when 🇮🇳🇺🇸 come together!
— Taranjit Singh Sandhu (@SandhuTaranjitS) June 24, 2023
Pleasure to sign India’s joining of the Artemis Accords, taking bilateral space cooperation to a higher orbit. pic.twitter.com/S8vwAfbjy7
Cart to Mars
In November 1963, a 715-kilogram rocket blasted off with its payload to steer India’s entry into the satellite launch market – which happened two years later using locally built rockets.
The black and white iconic memories of the rocket’s cone being ferried on a bicycle was hailed as a historic moment in India's space odyssey. The country had conducted 77 successful rocket launches.
India has also put into orbit 424 commercial satellites from 34 countries and is now eyeing a larger slice of that global multi-billion-euro market.
Spacefaring nations applauded when an Indian rocket reached Mars on its first attempt in 2014.
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