Chandrayaan-3

Chandrayaan-3

Chandrayaan-3

#GS 03 Science and Technology

For Prelims

Chandrayaan-3

  • The Chandrayaan-3 mission is the proposed follow up to Chandrayaan-2 mission of July 2019, which aimed to land a rover on the lunar South Pole.
  • The lander for the Chandrayaan-3 mission underwent the test during January 31-February 2 2023.
  • Chandrayaan-3 is slated to be launched later this year from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.

Chandrayaan-2

  • Chandrayaan-2 was India’s second mission to the Moon but it had failed to make a soft-landing on the lunar surface.
  • The lander and rover malfunctioned in the final moments and crash-landed and got destroyed in the process.
  • It was launched using the country’s most powerful launch vehicle, the GSLV-Mk 3.
  • The primary objective of Chandrayaan 2 was to demonstrate the ability of ISRO to conduct a soft-landing on the lunar surface and operate a robotic rover on the surface.
  • The mission consisted of an Orbiter of the Moon called Vikram (after Vikram Sarabhai), the lander and Pragyan (wisdom), the rover, which are equipped with scientific instruments to study the moon.
  • The Orbiter and other instruments of Chandrayaan-2 mission have been able to gather a wealth of new information that has increased our knowledge about the Moon and its environment.
  • The Chandrayaan-2 mission, remains active in the form of its orbiter hovering over the Moon even though the lander was lost after it hard landed on the dark side of the Moon in 2019.