Mission Chandrarayaan-3

🌚So far, during its orbit around the earth, as per commands from ISRO's tracking, telemetry and command facility (ISTRAC), the spacecraft fired its onboard engines on five pre-planned occasions. During each of these engine firings, the craft slingshot itself into a higher orbit and moved further away from the Earth. So far, the spacecraft has fired its onboard engines five times throughout its orbit above the Earth in response to commands from ISRO's tracking, telemetry, and command facility (ISTRAC). The craft catapulted itself into a higher orbit and moved further away from the Earth with each of these engine firings.

🌍The Indian space agency has been employing the Slingshot method, scientifically called as Hohmann Transfer Orbits, to deliver its spacecraft to destinations far from Earth (Moon, Mars, etc.). In the absence of powerful and heavy-lifting rockets, this is an energy-efficient method of transporting a spacecraft to its destination. It is conceivable to drive a gigantic craft (weighing close to 40 tonnes) to the moon in less than a week using highly strong rockets (such as America's Space Launch System). Given that India's LVM3 rocket has only a fraction of the lifting capability of global super-heavy rockets, the Indian space agency is employing a time-consuming (more than a month) strategy to transport its 3.9-tonne mission to the moon using available resources.

🌙Having heavier and more powerful rockets implies being able to transport larger and more capable spacecraft. The combination of large rockets and heavy spacecraft will ensure that the vessel develops the velocity and departure energy required to rapidly depart the influence of the Earth and set course for the moon (Trans Lunar Injection).


🌏After the TLI burn is over, the craft will travel for around five days to a predetermined place in space, where the moon will also be at the moment. Remember that the moon is also circling the globe, and the spaceship is also circling the earth, thus the craft and the moon must collide at an optimum moment and location. After that, at the appropriate time and day, the Lunar vehicle is permitted to de-boost and gradually approach the moon's surface, slowing down gradually and preparing for a lunar landing. The lunar landing of Chandrayaan-3 has been scheduled at 5:47 p.m. (IST) on August 23.


🌐Chandrayaan-3 is designed to settle near the Lunar south pole (about 80 degrees latitude) after a one-day mission (14 Earth days). The 'Vikram' lander of the project must land on the Moon's surface at the start of the Lunar Day to make use of available sunlight (via solar panels and batteries) to operate its science payloads, sensors, gather data, and relay it back to Earth. ISRO's Lunar spacecraft is designed to land a few hundred kilometres south of the Moon's south pole. Because of the lack of natural lighting, the lunar south pole has mostly remained unexplored. Many riddles of the moon are thought to be solved by doing in-situ probing of this region.