On Thursday 17 Aug 23 ISRO declared that successful detachment of Vikram lander from propulsion module which wents one step ahead for successive soft landing in moon’s polar region.
Vikram lander is carrying Pragyan rover which will conduct chemical investigation of moon’s surface. On successful landing of Vikram lander will make India the fourth country after United States, Russia and China.On tweeter platform, ISRO posted on behalf of Vikram lander,” thanks for the ride, mate!”. If according to mission everything goes well then lander is planned to soft land near polar region of moon between 23 and 24 Aug.
On tweeter platform, ISRO posted on behalf of Vikram lander,” thanks for the ride, mate!”. If according to mission everything goes well then lander is planned to soft land near polar region of moon between 23 and 24 Aug.
Indian mission to moon
Chandrayan-1
India’s first mission to moon launched from SDSC, Sriharikota successfully. The space craft was orbiting at a height of 100 km distance from moon surface, Aim of satellite was to analysis for chemical, mineralogical and photo geological mapping of moon.
Short details of chandrayan-1
| Launch Mass | 1380 kg |
| Mission life | 24 yrs |
| Power | 700 watt |
| Launch vehicle | PSLV-C11 |
| Application | planetary observations |
| Last contact | 28 Aug 2009 |
Chandrayan-2
Chandrayan 2 was second lunar exploration mission developed by ISRO after Chandrayan-1, was a complex mission comprised an orbitor, landor and rover. Mission designed to expand the lunar scientific knowledge through detailed study of topography, seismograph studies, mineral identification and distribution, surface chemical composition, thermo physical characteristics of top soils leading to a new understanding of the origin and evolution of the moon.
On 14 Aug 2019 chandrayan-2 was launched successfully from earth and on 20 Aug 2019 chandrayan-2 was successfully inserted into lunar orbit. While orbiting on moon at a 100 km lunar point orbit, on 02 Sep 2019 Vikram lander was separated from the propulsion module in preparation for soft landing. Landing of Vikram lander was going as planned and normal performance was observed upto an altitude of 2.1 km after that due to some internal problems communication from lander to ground station was lost unfortunately after that lander and rover crashed on the surface.
Short details of chandrayan-2
| Mission life | Orbitor- 7 yr lander& rover- 14 days |
| Power | oribtor- 1000 watt, Vikram lander -650 watt, rover-50 watts |
| Launch Mass | 3850 kg |
| Launch vehicle | LVM3 M1 |
| Application | Ability to soft-land and operate a robotic rover on the lunar surface. |
| Last contact | 06 sep 2019(Mission failed) |
Chandrayan 3
A lot modified from chandrayan-2, chandrayan-3 launched from Satish Dhawan space centre, Sriharikota on Friday, 14 Jul 2023 at 02.35 PM. This is the third attempt for soft landing in unexplored part of lunar surface in South polar region.
Short details of chandrayan-3
| Launch Date | 14 Jul 2023 |
| Landing Date | 23 Aug 2023 |
| Launch mass | Total-3900 kg propulsion module -2148 kg, Lander- 1752 kg(including rover 26 kg) |
| Power | Propulsion module -758w Lander module- 736w Bias rover -50 watt |
| Rocket | LVM3 M4 |
| Landing site | Lunar south pole |