Russia Bows Out of Race to the Moon as India’s Chandrayaan 3 Prepares for Lunar Rendezvous

After the crash of its robot lander on the lunar surface, Russia has withdrawn from the competition with India to reach the moon. As a result, Chandrayaan-3 has been redirected to a less challenging trajectory. Meanwhile, ISRO scientists have accomplished another successful maneuver, bringing the spacecraft closer to the moon as they aim for a soft landing on August 23.

ISRO on Sunday announced that it has successfully reduced the orbit of the Lander Module (LM) of the Chandrayaan-3 mission and it is now expected to land on the lunar surface at 6:04 PM on Wednesday.

This was despite the Russian lander Luna-25 plunging into the moon after entering an uncontrolled orbit. “The device entered an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of impact with the lunar surface,” the Russian space agency Roscosmos said in a statement. Roscosmos said it lost contact with the spacecraft on Saturday after it ran into trouble preparing for a pre-descent orbit after reporting an “abnormal situation” that its experts were analyzing. Luna-25 was launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East on August 10.

Incidentally, the ambitious Chandrayaan-2 had also hit the lunar surface four years ago, but its successor has ticked all the orbit-related boxes for now as part of its journey towards the Moon. Chandrayaan’s LM, which includes lander ‘Vikram’ and rover ‘Pragyan’, is expected to land on the moon’s surface on Wednesday, August 23 at 6:04 pm, added ISRO, which had earlier said the soft landing would take place at 5:47 pm on the same day. . After liftoff on August 11, Luna-25 was scheduled to touch down on the lunar surface on August 21, two days before Vikram’s scheduled landing. ISRO said the second and final de-powering (deceleration) has successfully reduced the LM orbit to 25 km x 134 km. The module went through internal checks and waited for sunrise at the assigned landing site. The powered landing is expected to begin on August 23, 2023 at around 5:45 PM, ISRO said on X, formerly Twitter. Russia’s setback brought back memories of ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 crash-landing of the Vikram lander and its Pragyan rover on September 6, 2019, while attempting to land on the moon’s south pole. According to the Luna-25 flight program, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said on August 19 that it was intended to provide an impulse to form its pre-descent elliptical orbit. However, communication was lost, and attempts to contact Luna-25 were unsuccessful. According to ISRO, India’s space exploration will reach a major milestone as the Chandrayaan-3 mission is all set to achieve a soft landing on the surface of the Moon.

This achievement is a major step forward for Indian science, engineering, technology and industry and symbolizes our country’s progress in space exploration.

This eagerly awaited event will be telecast live from 23rd August at 17:27 IST on multiple platforms including the ISRO website, its YouTube channel, the agency’s Facebook page and the DD National TV channel.

“The soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 is a monumental moment that will not only fuel curiosity but also instill the passion of exploration in the minds of our youth,” ISRO said.

“It creates a deep sense of pride and unity as we collectively celebrate India’s prowess in science and technology. It fosters an environment of scientific research and innovation,” it said.

In light of this, all schools and educational institutions across the nation are invited to actively spread awareness about this event among students and teachers and organize live streaming of the soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 in the campuses, ISRO said.

On Thursday, 35 days after the launch of the mission on July 14, the landing module of Chandrayaan-3 was successfully separated from the propulsion module.

ISRO sources earlier said that after separation, the lander will undergo ‘deboost’ (slow down process) operations to place it in an orbit where it would be at its closest point (Perilune) to the moon at a distance of 30 km and at its furthest point (Apolune) it would be 100 km away.

At this stage, a soft landing is attempted to the Moon’s south polar region.

At an altitude of about 30 kilometers, the lander will enter the engine braking phase and begin using thrusters to reach the lunar surface, they said. At about 100 meters, the lander will scan the surface to check for obstacles and then begin descending to make a soft landing.

After its launch on 14 July, Chandrayaan-3 entered lunar orbit on 5 August, after which the spacecraft underwent de-orbit maneuvers on 6, 9, 14 and 16 August before separation of both modules on 17 August. , before landing on August 23.

Earlier, over five maneuvers in the three weeks since the July 14 launch, ISRO had put the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into an orbit further and further away from Earth.

Then, on August 1, the spacecraft was successfully launched toward the Moon from Earth orbit in a key maneuver – a slingshot. After this injection over the Moon, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft escaped Earth orbit and began to follow a path that would take it into the vicinity of the Moon.

The current mission is a follow-up to Chandrayaan-2 and aims to demonstrate an end-to-end capability for safe landing and orbiting on the lunar surface.

Chandrayaan-3’s mission is to achieve a safe and soft landing on the Moon’s surface, demonstrate the rover’s mobility on the Moon, and conduct scientific in situ experiments.

The lander has the ability to land on a designated area of the moon and deploy a rover that performs in situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during its movements.

The lander and rover carry scientific payloads to conduct experiments on the lunar surface.

Only three countries – the former Soviet Union, the United States and China have managed to land on the moon, but not on the moon’s south pole. India and Russia competed to create history as the first countries to do so.