Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft undergoes another maneuver, comes even closer to moon's surface

Indias ambitious third Moon missions spacecraft Chandrayaan3 on Monday underwent another maneuver bringing it even closer to the Lunar surface ISRO saidThe national space agency headquartered here said the spacecraft has now achieved a nearcircular orbit around the moonPost its launch on July 14 Chandrayaan3 entered into the lunar orbit on August 5 following which two orbit reduction maneuvers were carried out on August 6 and 9Orbit circularisation phase commences Precise maneuver performed today has achieved a nearcircular orbit of 150 km x 177 km ISRO said in a tweetThe next operation is planned for August 16 around 830 am it saidAs the mission progresses a series of maneuvers is being conducted by ISRO to gradually reduce Chandrayaan3s orbit and position it over the lunar polesAccording to ISRO sources one more maneuver will be performed on the spacecraft on August 16 to reach 100 km orbit following which the landing module comprising the lander and rover will break away from the propulsion moduleAfter this 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 23Last week ISRO Chairman S Somnath had said the most critical part of the landing is the process of bringing the velocity of the lander from 30 km height to the final landing and that the ability to transfer the spacecraft from horizontal to vertical direction is the trick we have to play hereHe said the velocity at the starting of the landing process is almost 168 km per second but this speed is horizontal to the surface of the moon The Chandrayaan 3 here is tilted almost 90 degrees it has to become vertical So this whole process of turning from horizontal to vertical is a very interesting calculation mathematically We have done a lot of simulations It is here where we had the problem last time Chandrayaan 2Further it has to be ensured that fuel consumption is less the distance calculation is correct and all the algorithms are working properlyExtensive simulations have gone guidance design have been changed and a lot of algorithms have been put in place to make sure that in all these phases required dispersions are handledto attempt to make a proper landing he saidOver five moves in the three weeks since the July 14 launch ISRO had lifted the Chandrayaan3 spacecraft into orbits farther and farther away from the EarthThen on August 1 in a key maneuver a slingshot move the spacecraft was sent successfully towards the Moon from Earths orbit Following this translunar injection the Chandrayaan3 spacecraft escaped from orbiting the Earth and began following a path that would take it to the vicinity of the moonChandrayaan3 is a followon mission to Chandrayaan2 to demonstrate endtoend capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surfaceIt comprises an indigenous propulsion module lander module and a rover with an objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for interplanetary missionsThe propulsion module will carry the lander and rover configuration till 100 km lunar orbit The propulsion module has Spectropolarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth SHAPE payload to study the spectral and polarimetric measurements of earth from the lunar orbitThe mission objectives of Chandrayaan3 are to demonstrate safe and soft landing on the lunar surface to demonstrate rover roving on the Moon and to conduct insitu scientific experimentsThe lander will have the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the rover that will carry out insitu chemical analysis of the Moons surface during the course of its mobilityThe lander and the rover have scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the lunar surfaceThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever