Chandrayan-3: A Dream Come True for Every Indian

23rd August 2023, time around 6:04 p.m., was a historic moment for each Indian. India created history when India’s Chandrayan 3 successfully landed over moons South pole and became fourth in the world to step on moon. India is the first country to land on moon’s South pole.

Chandrayan 3 is the most significant mission for Indian space sector. It will provide data regarding lunar soil and rocks, including chemical and elemental composition.

Polar regions of the moon are very different due to environment and the difficulties they present. All previous spacecrafts landed in the equatorial region of moon. The moon south pole has to be explored because there could be a possibility of presence of water. Also lunar soil is ‘thermally insulated’ it had remainder mystery how heat travelled in the layers underneath the surface of the moon. Chandrayan-3 will try to on Earth this mystery.

The landing site of Chandrayan-3 is named as Shiv Shakti point. The spot where the Chandrayan -1 probe crashed was named Jawahar Sthal. In 2020, a moon crater spotted by Chandrayan -2 was named after Vikram Sarabhai the father of the Indian space program.

 

Following observations are made by rover

 On 27 Aug 2023, ChaSTE (Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment) measures the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the pole to understand the thermal behavior of the moon’s surface.

On 28 August 2023 LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy) instrument on board Chandrayan 3 rover conforms the presence of Sulphur on the lunar surface through unambiguous in situ measurements.

On30 Aug 2023 APXS on board Chandrayan 3 over detects the presence of minor elements.

On 31st August 2023 RAMBHA-LP on board Chandrayan -3 measures near Surface plasma content.

Successful tasks are not only achievements for the leaders but the whole team. This was displayed on August 23, when as soon as the rover landed on the surface of the moon, the scientist who are seen congratulating each other. This was a show of strength, faith and true team work.

The previous mission to the moon Chandrayaan-2 had failed in its last stages. During landing, the rover suffered a hard landing and the mission failed. But this time, the scientists were able to achieve a soft landing. This teaches us to not be afraid of failure. Trying, failing and learning are the most important components of any mission