India tries next moon landing with Chandrayaan 3 launch in August
India plans to land a second moon landing with the Chandrayaan 3 mission, currently scheduled for launch in August.
In 2019, Chandrayaan 2 The mission’s Vikram lander crashed into the moon at the end of the landing, although the accompanying orbiter was still studying the moon from afar. Immediately after the collisionThe Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced that it intends to quickly launch a successor mission to try to land again.
But then the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world, hampering all kinds of space missions and hindering many planned Indian launches. Now, the agency is ready to set a new date for the return of moontargeted for an August launch, just over three years after its predecessor was blown up.
Related: India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission to the moon in pictures
“This time we will be more cautious,” space minister Jitendra Singh told Times of India. “I should tell you that no country has succeeded in landing on the moon on its first attempt. America was able to land on the moon after failing three times in the 1960s.” Singh reveals new launch schedule on February 2nd statement.
ISRO’s prudence translated into a number of design changes intended to improve the success of Chandrayaan 3 over the crashed Vikram lander. The new mission, for example, will not include an orbiter with scientific capabilities like the Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft still orbiting the moon, ISRO president S. Somanath told the Times of India in the same article.
“This orbiter will not be equipped with scientific instruments like the previous one,” Somanath said. “Its work will be limited to sending the lander to the moon, monitoring the landing from its orbit, and communicating between the lander and the Earth station.”
In addition, the new lander will consist of only four engines; At the end of the design process, engineers added a fifth engine to the Vikram lander, according to Times of India. The second-generation lander will also be based on a slightly different design for the landing pins and will include an instrument that can more accurately measure the lander’s speed as it approaches the lunar surface.
Follow SpaceNews. ISRO has yet to release details on a post-launch timeline; Chandrayaan 2 reached lunar orbit 30 days after launch and attempted to land 48 days after launch.
Chandrayaan 3 is heading same place at the south pole of the moon that Vikram targets in 2019. If all goes well, India will become the fourth country to successfully land on the moon, after the United States, Russia and China, although though none of them have landed at the icy south pole.
Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @megahanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and more Facebook.
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