Flights Of Fantasy
[ M Panging Pao ]
Recently, Chandrayaan-3 was successfully launched on 14 July, 2023. Presently, Chandrayaan-3 is orbiting Earth and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully performed the fourth orbit-raising manoeuvre to raise the orbit height before leaving the Earth orbit towards the Moon. The lander and the rover of Chandrayaan-3 are expected to land on the Moon after a 40-day voyage near the lunar South Pole region on 23 August, 2023 and carry out experiments for one lunar day (equivalent to 14 Earth days).
This follows the last stage failure of Chandrayaan-2, which had been launched on 22 July, 2019. The lander and the rover of Chandrayaan-2 were scheduled to land on the near side of the Moon on 6 September, 2019. However, the lander crashed when it deviated from its intended trajectory while attempting to land on the Moon.
Chandrayaan-3 is the third lunar exploration mission under the ambitious Chandrayaan programme, which is a stepping stone towards India’s future interplanetary missions. Chandrayaan-3 carries a Moon lander named Vikram and a rover named Pragyan, similar to Chandrayaan-2. Its propulsion module acts like a communication relay satellite. The propulsion module carries the lander and rover configuration until the spacecraft is in a 100 km lunar orbit.
The Moon lander has three payloads: The first is Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature of the lunar surface. Second is Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA), which will measure the seismicity around the Moon landing site. Third is the Langmuir Probe (LP) will estimate the plasma density and its variations.
Chandrayaan-3 rover is six-wheeled design vehicle weighing 26 kgs with a range of 500 metres only. The expected lifespan is one lunar day (14 Earth days), during which it will carry out different experiments like studying the composition of Moon surface, presence of water ice in lunar soil, etc.
India is the fourth country in the world to successfully land on the Moon after the USA, Russia and China. Readers are aware that the USA successfully landed many astronauts on the Moon with Neil Armstrong being the first man to step on the moon on 20 July, 1969. It has been a challenge for the scientific world to land and explore the Moon. Presently, NASA is planning unmanned and manned missions to Mars.
Most Indians and many people all over the world are excitedly awaiting the Moon landing on 23 August, 2023. The event would be a successful technology demonstrator of India’s progress in space technology. It would also help in gathering critical data for further exploration in space.
In many ways, it would be a major event for many Arunachalees also. Many Arunachalees worship and follow Donyi Polo. Polo is the local name of the Moon. That means humans are landing on Polo. (The contributor is retired Group Captain, Indian Air Force)
