India is at the cusp of scripting history, as ISRO's ambitious moon mission Chandrayaan-3 will attempt a touchdown this evening. India will be the fourth country to land a rover on moon after Russia, United States and China.
The latest iteration of the Chandrayaan comes four years after an earlier attempt failed, with the ground crew losing contact moments before landing. It's a follow-up mission to Chandrayaan-2.
Space agency ISRO has expressed confidence that the landing will take place without a hitch, as the scientists have incorporated all the valuable lessons they learnt from Chandrayaan-2.
Key Differences Between The Two Missions
Aim
The objectives of Chandrayaan-3 mission are safe and soft landing on the lunar surface. The rover will collect data on the composition and geology of the moon, which will help scientists learn more about the history and evolution of our nearest celestial neighbour.
In addition to its primary goal of landing a spacecraft on the moon, Chandrayaan-3 will also conduct scientific experiments to study the moon's environment, including its history, geology, and potential for resources.
Chandrayaan-3 is carrying six payloads to study the lunar soil and capture photographs of Earth from the lunar orbit.
Design
Instead of a success-based design in Chandrayaan-2, the space agency opted for a failure-based design in Chandrayaan-3, focused on what all can fail and how to protect it and ensure a successful landing.
ISRO said that the new mission has been designed to land successfully even if certain elements fail. Several scenarios including engine failure, senor failure, calculation failure, and algorithm failure were examined and measures developed to counteract them.
"Chandrayaan-3's design philosophy is that it should land even if everything goes wrong," Professor Radhakant Padhi, Aerospace Scientist, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, told NDTV.
Apparatus
Another noticeable difference is the apparatus on the orbiters. While the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter carried 9 instruments, the new orbiter will have a lone in-situ instrument: Spectro-polarimetry of habitable planet Earth.
The launch rocket being used for the Chandrayaan-3 mission is the same one that was used in Chandrayaan 2 mission, but several modifications have been made to make it a better fit for the purpose.
The Vikram Lander has two on-board computers in Chandrayaan-3, there was only one in Chandrayaan-2.
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