 "Chandrayaan-3, India's third venture to moon, set to be launched on July 13")
The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has confirmed the launch date for Chandrayaan-3, its highly anticipated lunar mission. Officials announced on Wednesday that the rocket will launch on July 13 at 2:30 pm local time.
The mission, India's third to the moon, is another significant step forward for the country in space exploration, following the successful but bittersweet Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019. While the previous mission orbited the moon, the Vikram lander suffered a hard landing, preventing the rover from being deployed as planned.
Meanwhile, Isro officials are optimistic about the upcoming mission's chances of success.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission is expected to further our understanding of the moon, with the primary goal of demonstrating the ability to soft-land on the lunar surface and operate a robotic rover.
The launch will take place at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, using a GSLV Mark 3 heavy-lift launch vehicle. The mission has a budget of Rs 615 crore.
The Chandrayaan-3 has undergone rigorous testing and validation processes to reduce risks and ensure mission success. Based on lessons learned from the previous mission, the mission design, including the lunar payload configuration, has been optimised.
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This time, Isro has taken significant steps to ensure the mission's success. The Chandrayaan-3 mission, like Chandrayaan-2, will include a lander and a rover but will not carry an orbiter. The propulsion module, which is designed to function similarly to a communications relay satellite, will transport the lander and rover until the spacecraft reaches a 100 km lunar orbit.
The inclusion of the Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload is a significant addition to the mission. This equipment will study Earth's spectral and polarimetric measurements from lunar orbit, providing scientists with valuable information about our home planet.
Isro has set three primary goals for the Chandrayaan-3 mission: to land safely and softly on the moon, to demonstrate the rover's loitering capabilities on the lunar surface, and to conduct in-situ scientific observations.
The mission also aims to investigate the chemical and natural elements, soil, and water available on the lunar surface in order to better understand the moon's composition.