Lander Module successfully separates; ready to be moved closer to Moon's surface

Achieving a major milestone ISRO on Thursday announced that the Chandrayaan3 spacecrafts Lander Module has successfully separated from the Propulsion module that was propelling it all these days in spaceThe Lander Module comprising the lander Vikram and the rover Pragyan is now ready to be lowered to an orbit that takes it closer to the Moons surface The soft landing on the Lunar south pole is scheduled on August 23 Thanks for the ride mate said the Lander Module LM LM is successfully separated from the Propulsion Module PM LM is set to descend to a slightly lower orbit upon a deboosting planned for tomorrow around 1600 Hrs IST ISRO said in a post on X formerly TwitterAfter Thursdays separation the lander is expected to undergo a deboost the process of slowing down to place it in an orbit where the Perilune the orbits closest point to the Moon is 30 kilometres and Apolune farthest point from the Moon is 100 km from where the soft landing on the south polar region of the Moon will be attempted ISRO sources saidMeanwhile the Propulsion Module will continue its journey in the current orbit for monthsyears the countrys space agency saidThe SHAPE Spectropolarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth payload onboard it Propulsion Module would perform spectroscopic study of the Earths atmosphere and measure the variations in polarization from the clouds on Earth iquest to accumulate signatures of Exoplanets that would qualify for our habitability ISRO said adding that this payload is shaped by its U R Rao Satellite Centre in BengaluruPost its launch on July 14 Chandrayaan3 entered into the lunar orbit on August 5 following which orbit reduction maneuvers were carried out on the satellite on August 6 9 14 and 16 ahead of separation of both its modules today in the runup to the landing on August 23ISRO Chairman S Somanath had recently said the most critical part of the landing is the process of bringing the velocity of the lander from 30 km height to the final landing and that the ability to transfer the spacecraft from horizontal to vertical direction is the trick we have to play hereThe velocity at the starting of the landing process is almost 168 km per second but this speed is horizontal to the surface of the moon The Chandrayaan3 here is tilted almost 90 degrees it has to become vertical So this whole process of turning from horizontal to vertical is a very interesting calculation mathematicallyWe have done a lot of simulations It is here where we had the problem last time Chandrayaan2 Somanath explainedEarlier over five moves in the three weeks since the July 14 launch ISRO had lifted the Chandrayaan3 spacecraft into orbits farther and farther away from the EarthThen on August 1 in a key maneuver a slingshot move the spacecraft was sent successfully towards the Moon from Earths orbit Following this translunar injection the Chandrayaan3 spacecraft escaped from orbiting the Earth and began following a path that would take it to the vicinity of the moonChandrayaanI Project Director M Annadurai said It is a great moment and this will imply how the lander is performing and the lander will be verified and tested and brought closer and closer to the moon then it will be given the required commands such that it takes over on the cue on August 23 to go all the way to the targeted place and have a safe and secure landingThis is the beginning and all further milestones have to be seen very carefully We have crossed major milestones from the launch vehicle and after that the propulsion system separationnow really the match starts These are the final overs we are talking about I think it is a great moment The whole world is waiting to see what Vikram will do and What Pragyan will come out and do I am also enthusiastically waiting Annadurai told PTIChandrayaan3 is a followon mission to Chandrayaan2 to demonstrate endtoend capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surfaceThe mission objectives of Chandrayaan3 are to demonstrate safe and soft landing on the lunar surface to demonstrate rover roving on the Moon and to conduct insitu scientific experimentsThe lander has the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the rover that will carry out insitu chemical analysis of the Moons surface during the course of its mobilityThe lander and the rover have scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the lunar surfaceThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever