Russia and India have crashed on the moon
India’s Chandrayaan- 3 mission will arrive on the lunar surface in Bengaluru on Wednesday at 8:14 a.m. Eastern time
The last attempt to get onto the moon by India ended in disaster four years ago. India hopes the Chandrayaan- 3 mission will make it to the moon in one piece.
India is a source of national pride due to its space program and the proliferation of commercial space start-ups. India’s recent efforts in space exploration closely mirror the country’s diplomatic push as an ambitious power on the rise.
The lander is in an elliptical orbit of the moon, swinging as close as about 15 miles above the surface. The Indian Space Research Organization says that on Wednesday at 8:14 a.m. Eastern time, the spacecraft will fire its engines to come out of the clouds and descend to the surface. The fall will be harder to stop, because the engines will help it land softly.
The India Space Research Organization will be giving a livestream from the mission control room in Bengaluru. You can watch it on ISRO’s YouTube channel or website starting at 7:50 a.m. Eastern.
The Hindi word for “moon craft” is Chandrayaan. In addition to the propulsion module that pushed the spacecraft into orbit around the moon, the landing module consists of the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover that will attempt to set down on the lunar surface in the moon’s south polar region. There are no humans on the robotic mission.
The day the sun will rise is the reason why the landing site was chosen. The mission will be over two weeks later when the sun sets. There will be instruments used to make thermal, seismic and mineralogical recordings while on the surface.
Russia’s Luna-25 lander was not so lucky. The craft crashed as it prepared for a landing the next day, after it malfunctioned and seemed to have missed the runway. Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, intended to deploy Luna-25 for a year-long mission near the Boguslavsky impact crater, where its eight scientific instruments would also have examined properties of the regolith and pockets of water ice.
No ground intervention was needed for Chandra moon 3 to land. The craft’s autonomous landing system took control about one hour before the start of the descent. India’s space agency, the Indian Space Research Organization or ISRO, provided a live telecast in both Hindi and English.
The power descent phase began at about 8:15 am ET, during which time the craft’s speed slowed from 1,680 to 358 meters per second, and the altitude dropped from 30 to 7.4 kilometers over a period of 11.5 minutes. During the following altitude hold phase, for 10 seconds the craft turned its altimeters towards the moon’s surface to take a reading of how far it was from the regolith. The fine braking phrase ran for nearly 3 minutes as the altitude was reduced to 800 meters.
The vertical descent phase began around 8:29 am Eastern time, and the craft began its approach to the lunar surface, turning to orient its four legs towards the landing site. It briefly hovered 150 meters above the surface as the craft’s sensors took readings of the safety of the landing site and re-targeted accordingly. Then, as it successfully set down on the regolith, the people in ISRO mission control headquarters in Bengaluru broke into cheers. The chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization exclaimed that India is on the moon. Prime Minister Modi was watching the televsion, and Sarabhai asked him to speak. “Friends, on this joyous occasion I would like to address all the people of the world, the people of every country and region. Modi said during a part of the address that the successful moon mission was not just India’s alone. “This success belongs to all of humanity and it will help moon missions by other countries in the future. I think all countries of the world, including those from the global south, are capable of achieving such things. We can all aspire for the moon and beyond.”
