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#Watch | A Year Since #Chandrayaan2 Launch, India Prepares to Touch the Moon with #Chandrayaan3 weather.com/en-IN/india/sc…

@isro #ISRO

July 22, 2020 marks the one-year anniversary of the launch of #Chandrayaan2, India’s second lunar exploration mission developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Initially scheduled to launch on July 14, 2019, this mega-mission launch was aborted and rescheduled with just an hour to go due to a technical glitch.

@isro

Subsequently, at 2:43 p.m. IST on July 22, the mission was successfully launched from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh, on board the GSLV MK III M1 launch vehicle.

About 29 days after the launch, on August 20, 2019, the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft entered the lunar orbit. Vikram Lander separated from the C2 Orbiter on September 2, and began its descent towards the southern lunar pole on September 6.

While its initial descent was within mission parameters, the Lander's trajectory began to deviate as it edged closer to the surface, and it eventually crash-landed on the Moon.

While the Lander shattered upon impact, the Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter, with its eight scientific instruments, remains operational, and will continue its seven-year mission to study the Earth’s natural satellite.

Meanwhile, in spite of the failure in the Lander aspect of the mission, @isro has remained intent on stepping foot on the Moon, and it aims to achieve the same by next year through the Chandrayaan-3 mission.

What will #Chandrayaan3 be like?

Based on the lessons learnt from Chandrayaan-2, the Chandrayaan-3 mission is expected to sport a configuration that allows robust design and capacity enhancement for mission flexibility, all while retaining the ‘heritage’ of its predecessor.

Moreover, reports suggest #ISRO scientists will also be considering incorporating improvements that experts have suggested after analysing what went wrong in the previous mission.

One such priority could be “strengthening the legs of the lander”, so as to improve its chances of survival in the event of another crash.

Considering the fact that the C2 Orbiter continues to function as expected, #Chandrayaan3 will only consist of a lander and a rover.

This would also make the mission more economical, with @isro chairman K. Sivan estimating it to be worth ₹615 crore rupees. In comparison, #Chandrayaan2 cost India ₹970 crore rupees—an extremely economic figure still, as far as space missions go.

The type of payloads (instruments) #Chandrayaan3 will carry remains unknown as of now. If it does retain all the main objectives of C2, it is likely to consist of payloads identical to those within Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover that were destroyed during the hard landing.

While much remains unknown, what we do know for certain is that @isro has successfully commenced work on #Chandrayaan3 back in November 2019. And while the #COVID19Pandemic may have affected developments, the mission remains likely to be launched by 2021.