Find Out What ISRO’s Next Steps Are After Historic Chandrayaan-3 Moon Landing
On Wednesday, the Chandrayaan-3 lander achieved a historic touchdown near the South Pole of the Moon, marking India as the fourth nation to successfully land on the lunar surface, following the US, Russia, and China. Notably, India has become the first country to land in close proximity to the lunar South Pole. Given the recent failure of Russia’s Luna-25, all eyes were on India, but it lived up to expectations as the Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander made contact with the Moon’s surface at 6:04 PM IST.
Following this historic achievement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X, “Chandrayaan-3’s victory reflects the aspirations and capabilities of 140 million Indians. To new horizons and beyond! A proud moment…”
ISRO later shared an update on X, mentioning that “communication link has been established between Ch-3 Lander and MOX-ISTRAC in Bengaluru”. The Indian Space Agency also released images taken by the Vikram lander’s Horizontal Velocity Camera.
Now that the Vikram lander has landed on the lunar soil, know what’s next for ISRO’s Moon mission.
Chandrayaan 3: What next
Propulsion Module – Chandrayaan-3’s propulsion module, which separated from lander on August 17, will continue to orbit the Moon and conduct a series of experiments over the next months and even years. Surprisingly, it has more than 150 kg of fuel left, extending its life to several years from the original estimate of three to six months.
It is equipped with the SHAPE (Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth) payload, which performs experiments such as measurements of polarization variations in clouds above Earth, spectroscopic analysis of Earth’s atmosphere, and collects signatures of exoplanets to identify habitability.
Vikram Lander – The Chandrayaan-3 lander, named Vikram, opens on one side to create a ramp for the Pragyan rover. This happens only after a period of about four hours, when the lunar dust that rose due to the Moon’s weak gravity during contact has settled.
During its 1 lunar day or 14 Earth days lifetime, the Vikram lander will conduct a series of experiments, including Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure thermal conductivity and temperature, and the Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) to measure seismic activity around the landing site at the lunar south pole.
The Langmuir Probe (LP) in the lander enables estimation and measurement of the plasma density. It also uses NASA’s Passive Laser Retroreflector Array to conduct laser ranging studies of the moon.
Pragyan rover – The Pragran rover, with the tricolor and ISRO logo, uses its navigation cameras to scan the surface of the Moon, moving about 1 centimeter per second. It is equipped with an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), which allow it to perform qualitative and quantitative elemental analysis of the landing site, study the chemical and mineralogical composition, and determine the elemental composition of lunar rocks and soils in the vicinity.
