Names are something that India’s third moon exploration mission, slated for a mid-July launch as things stand, will share with the 2019 Chandrayaan-2 lunar adventure. Apart from the obvious ‘Chandrayaan,’ that is.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to retain the names of the Chandrayaan-2 lander and rover for their Chandrayaan-3 equivalents as well, Chairman of the space agency S. Somanath told The Hindu. This means, the Chandrayaan-3 lander will bear the name ‘Vikram’ (after Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the Indian space programme) and the rover, ‘Pragyan’.
Much to its disappointment, the ISRO had lost the Chandrayaan-2 lander-rover configuration and the payloads aboard them after ‘Vikram’ crashed on the lunar surface while attempting a soft landing.
Earlier this month, Mr. Somanath had announced ISRO’s plans to launch the third moon mission in mid-July aboard the LVM3 (formerly GSLV Mk-III) rocket from Sriharikota.
A propulsion module will carry the lander-rover configuration to a 100-km lunar orbit. Once the ‘Vikram’ lander module makes it safely to the moon, it will deploy ‘Pragyan’ ‘‘which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility,’‘ according to the ISRO.
Scientific experiments
The lander, rover and the propulsion module will have payloads for performing experiments designed to give scientists new insights into the characteristics of earth’s lone natural satellite.
The lander will have four payloads — Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA), Chandra’s Surface Thermo physical Experiment (ChaSTE), Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) and the LASER Retroreflector Array (LRA). The six-wheeled rover will have two payloads — the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and the LASER Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS).
In addition to these, there will be one payload on the propulsion module, the Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (SHAPE).
