"Chandrayaan-3 Will Land Safely Even If Everything Goes Wrong": Scientist

Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander has an inbuilt "salvage mode" which will help it land even if every thing goes wrong, an aerospace scientist explained, pointing out that a lot of improvements have been done after Chandrayaan-2's failure. There's "absolutely no doubt" that it will land safely, he said.

"Chandrayaan-2 failed as the Vikram lander could not control its speed and it tumbled...There was an algorithm failure, which has now been corrected. Vikram Landers legs are more robust now," Professor Radhakant Padhi, Aerospace Scientist, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, told NDTV.

Radhakant Padhi has been involved with the launch of both Chandrayaan 2 and 3. The Aerospace department of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, is also contributing to the moon mission.

He said scientists at the Indian space agency ISRO were "overconfident" in Chandrayaan-2, and Chandrayaan-3's design philosophy is that it should land even if everything goes wrong.

Radhakant Padhi said he was confident that the lander will be successful. Chandrayaan-3 is designed for six "sigma bounds", so it's more robust, he said.

"Chandrayaan-3 has been stress tested, ISRO has taken care of all known unknowns," Professor Padhi said.

Mimicking lunar conditions on Earth is impossible, he explained, adding that Vikram Lander can undertake hazard detection to search for the best landing site.

"The Vikram Lander has two on-board computers, there was only one in Chandrayaan-2," he said, adding that he is "99.9%" confident that the Vikram Lander will perform as expected.

The latest images of the Moon taken by the Chandrayaan-3's lander identified some prominent craters. The images were taken by a camera tasked to help the Vikram lander find a safe landing area ahead of its historic touchdown on the unexplored lunar south polar region on Wednesday evening.

The lander is scheduled to touch down on the Moon's south polar region at 6:04 pm on Wednesday. If successful, India will join US, Russia, and China as only the fourth country to achieve this feat.