Chandrayaan 3; India with historic achievement

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ISRO shocks the world by bringing the Chandrayaan 3 probe, which took the lander to the moon, back to Earth's orbit. The next step is landing it on Earth. If that succeeds, it will give wings to the dream of taking humans to the moon and back in just one probe. However, scientists say that it is not that easy.

The return of the propulsion module was made possible from the UR Rao Satellite Center in Bengaluru. The Hope experiment, which took the lander off the lunar surface and landed it a little further away, had already been successful. This step was also equally complicated. The propulsion module is currently in orbit at a distance of 1.5 lakh km.

The Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Station on July 14, 2023 on an LMVM-4 rocket and helped the lander reach the orbit of the Moon on August 17. It landed on August 23.

It later operated the SHAPE (Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth) instrument on board to assist with communications from the lander. Even after this, there was 100 kg of fuel left in the probe. ISRO decided to use this fuel for future missions. It was also decided to proceed with the further operation of the SHAPE instrument on the orbit around Earth.

Return trip

October 9: The Propulsion Module's orbit was raised from 150 km above the Moon to 5112 km. This changed the rotation time from 2.1 to 7.2 hours

October 13: TransEarth injection was performed and the propulsion module was moved into an orbit 1.8 lakh km close to Earth and 3.8 lakh km away.

November 22: The propulsion module reached 1.5 lakh km distance and is currently roaming there.

Achievements

1. Developed control software to return the spacecraft

2. Success of low-cost method for interplanetary travel which is based on gravity

3. Avoided collisions with spacecraft on the return path

Spacecraft and Indian probe

• In July 1969, the United States landed a man on the moon and brought him back using the Apollo 11 spacecraft.
• The mission was completed successfully in just 8 days and returned to Earth. 49,196 crores expenditure
• Chandrayaan 3 took three months to go and come back from Earth's orbit to the Moon. 615 crores expenditure
• Apollo's journey was in a straight line modelled on fuel-powered aircraft
• The journey of the Indian probe is by orbiting using the gravitational pull of the planets