Chandrayaan-3 moon landing: A look inside Vikram lander and Pragyan rover

Chandrayaan-3 latest news: India will attempt its first successful lunar landing at 6:04 pm today

With Chandrayaan-3, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will on Wednesday aims to make a place in history. If the mission succeeds, India will become the first country to land on the South Pole of the Moon.

At 6:04 pm, Vikram lander, with Pragyan rover in it, will attempt to make a soft landing on the Moon's far side. Both the rover and the lander have their task cut out. It has also been decided what they will do once they reach the Earth's only natural satellite.

Chandrayaan-3 updates: A deep dive into the Vikram lander

The Vikram lander, named after the father of India's space mission Vikram Sarabhai, has the capability to touch down at a specified lunar site and deploy the rover, which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility.

The lander has scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the lunar surface.

Vikram has a mission life of one lunar day, which is equivalent to 14 Earth days. It has a mass of 1749.86 kg, including the Pragyan rover.

There are four scientific payloads in the Vikram lander.

Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive Ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA) will measure the near-surface plasma (ions and electrons) density and its changes with time.

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Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) will carry out the measurements of the thermal properties of the lunar surface near the polar region.

Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) will measure seismicity around the landing site and delineate the structure of the lunar crust and mantle.

Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) from Nasa is a passive experiment to understand the dynamics of the Moon system. It will have seven sensors, including lander hazard detection and avoidance camera.

Lander also has six mechanisms, including lander leg, rover ramp (Primary and Secondary), rover, ILSA, rambha and chaste Payloads, umbilical connector protection mechanism, and X-band antenna.

Chandrayaan-3 news: What does the Pragyan rover have?

The rover has the following payloads:

Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) propulsion module for qualitative and quantitative elemental analysis. LIBS will help derive the chemical composition and infer mineralogical composition to further our understanding of the lunar surface.

Also Read: Chandrayaan-3 is ready to create history, check landing date, time and more

Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) will determine the elemental composition such as magnesium, Aluminium, Silicon, Potassium, Calcium, Titanium, and Iron) of lunar soil and rocks around the lunar landing site.

Chandrayaan-3: What will the propulsion module do?

The main function of the propulsion module (PM) was to carry the lander module (LM) from the launch vehicle injection to the final lunar 100 km circular polar orbit and separate the LM from the PM, which it did.

Apart from this, the PM also has one scientific payload - spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and Polari metric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit - as a value addition.

(With agency inputs)