Chandrayaan-3 To Slow Down and Execute Risky Maneuver Of Releasing Lander And Rover For Soft Landing On Moon

After a month of accelerating its journey to the Moon, India's Chandrayaan-3 is now entering a very critical stage. Instead of speeding, the manmade satellite is now slowing down as it attempts to land on the moon.

After achieving and entering a near-circular orbit around the Moon on Monday, India's ambitious third Moon mission spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 will now carefully descend to the lunar surface. Let's see how the fully indigenously built spacecraft will pull off the extremely complex maneuver and attempt to avoid the fatal mistakes which killed the Chandrayaan-3.

Chandrayaan-3 To Go From 150Km To 100Km Radius And Separate From Lander

After launching on July 14, and successfully executing multiple "slingshot" maneuvers around the Earth, Chandrayaan-3 entered into the lunar orbit on August 5. The spacecraft then proceeded to reduce the distance between the moon by executing two orbit reduction maneuvers on August 6 and 9.

The next maneuver, successfully executed today, brought the Chandrayaan-3 within the critical 100 km radius. Moving forward, the spacecraft will execute even more complex and dangerous maneuvers to position itself over the lunar poles.

Reaching the 100 km radius is a key milestone because Chandrayaan-3 will subsequently release the landing module, comprising the lander and rover. These two will break away from the propulsion module after following the detachment procedures.

De-boosting Chandrayaan-3 Starts To Release Lander And Rover

ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) charted out an increasingly oval trajectory over five moves in the three weeks since the July 14 launch to lift the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into orbits farther away from the Earth.

Early this month, on August 1, the spacecraft hurtled toward the Moon from Earth's orbit. Following this trans-lunar injection, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft escaped from orbiting the Earth and began following a path that would take it to the vicinity of the moon.

Starting today, August 16, 2023, the lander and rover will undergo a "deboost", which is essentially the process of slowing down. The lander will try and make a soft landing on the south-polar region of the Moon on August 23.

Chandrayaan-3 comprises an indigenous propulsion module, a lander module, and a rover. The mission's primary objective is to develop and demonstrate new technologies required for interplanetary missions. Additionally, India wants to achieve a safe and soft landing on the lunar surface and demonstrate rover roving on the Moon to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.