The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has taken much longer to reach the moon than the manned Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s, which arrived in a matter of days [File: Idrees Mohammed/EPA]
Metropolis Desk-
More than three weeks after its launch, Chandrayaan-3, the most recent space mission from India, entered the orbit of the moon, according to the nation’s space agency on Saturday.
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, whose name translates to “moon vehicle” in Sanskrit, was “successfully inserted into the lunar orbit,” according to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Between August 23 and 24, if the remainder of the present mission goes according to plan, the mission will safely touch down close to the moon’s under-explored south pole.
India’s previous attempt to do so four years ago was unsuccessful because ground control lost contact just before landing. Sanskrit for “valor” is Vikram in the Chandrayaan-3 lander module, which is also the name of the rover. Pragyan is the Sanskrit word for “wisdom” in the rover.
For the nation, which has managed its ambitious aerospace program on a relatively small budget, it is a significant accomplishment. Previously controlled landings on the lunar surface have only been accomplished by China, the United States, and Russia.
The mission’s $74.6 million price tag is significantly lower than those of other nations, which is a credit to India’s thrifty space engineering.
According to experts, India can maintain costs low by replicating and modifying existing space technology because it has a large number of highly talented engineers who make a small fraction of what their overseas counterparts do in pay.
Compared to the manned Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s, which arrived on the moon in a matter of days, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has taken a great deal longer to get there.
The probe orbited the Earth five or six times elliptically to build speed because the Indian rocket employed was significantly less powerful than the Saturn V utilized by the United States before being sent on a month-long lunar mission.
The rover will dismount from Vikram if the landing is successful and move on to investigate the neighboring lunar region while collecting photographs that will be relayed back to Earth for processing.
The rover has a 14-day Earthly or one lunar day mission life.
S Somanath, the head of ISRO, stated that his engineers meticulously examined data from the previous unsuccessful mission and made every effort to correct the bugs.
Since it sent its first probe into lunar orbit in 2008, India’s space program has significantly expanded in scope and momentum.
Three years later, the ISRO launched 104 satellites in a single mission. In 2014, it became the first Asian country to orbit a spacecraft near Mars.
By the end of the year, the ISRO’s Gaganyaan (Sanskrit for “sky craft”) program is expected to launch a three-day manned trip into Earth’s orbit.
India is also attempting to increase its 2% market share of the global commercial space sector by launching private payloads into orbit at a discount from rivals.
Source- Al Jazeera
