Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft gets closer to Moon surface with another successful orbit reduction

ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft moved closer to the Moon’s surface on Wednesday, successfully navigating another another orbit reduction. The Indian spacecraft had first entered the lunar orbit on August 5 and will drop to the 100 km orbit by next week.

ISRO will lead the vessel through two more orbit maneuvers on August 14 and 15 to bring Chandrayaan-3 significantly closer to the moon’s surface. Following this the landing module – comprising the lander and rover – will break away from the propulsion module. The lander is expected to undergo a “deboost” (the process of slowing down) and make a soft landing on the south polar region of the Moon on August 23.

“Even closer to the moon’s surface. Chandrayaan-3’s orbit is reduced to 174 km x 1437 km following a maneuvere performed today. The next operation is scheduled for August 14, 2023, between 11:30 and 12:30 Hrs. IST,” ISRO tweeted.

ISRO lifted Chandrayaan-3 into orbits farther and farther away from the Earth in the weeks following  its July 14 launch. A key maneuver on August 1 launched the spacecraft successfully into the moon’s orbit. 

Following its landing on the moon, the lander and the rover currently housed within Chandrayaan-3 will carry out experiments on the lunar surface. The mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3 are to demonstrate safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, to demonstrate rover roving on the Moon, and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.

Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. The entire design of the lander ‘Vikram’ has been made in a manner that makes sure that it would be able to handle failures. However, ISRO plans to have a proper touchdown even if its sensors and engines fail completely.

(With inputs from agencies)