New Delhi:
Chandrayaan-3 is just hours away from an attempt to land on the moon, which could make India the first country to land a spacecraft on the lunar body’s south pole.
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Chandrayaan-3 is expected to land at 6.04 pm today, making India the fourth country to pull off a soft landing on the moon’s surface.
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After Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the moon on Sunday, Chandrayaan-3 will aim to be the first to land on the moon’s south pole. The south pole – far from the equatorial region targeted by previous missions, including the crewed Apollo landings – is full of craters and deep trenches.
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The south pole is important as the region is believed to contain water ice which could support a future moon settlement.
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If successful, the Chandrayaan-3 mission will be a huge boost for India’s space industry. Not only will it cement India’s standing as a space power, but it will also have implications for future lunar exploration.
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The mission will also demonstrate new technology for interplanetary missions.
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Chandrayaan-3 lander Vikram is carrying a rover named ‘Pragyaan’ which will analyse the chemical makeup of the moon’s surface and search for water
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Pragyaan will use its laser beams to melt a piece of the lunar surface, called regolith, and analyse the gases emitted in the process.
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Through this mission, India will not only access a wealth of knowledge about the lunar surface but also its potential for human habitation in the future.
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Another payload, the Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive Ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA), will measure the density of charged particles near the lunar surface and how it changes over time.
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An Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) will measure the chemical composition and infer the mineralogical composition of the moon’s surface while the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) will determine the elemental composition of lunar soil.
(This news is published through a syndicated feed courtesy NDTV)