Chandrayaan-3 Countdown Timer: ISRO mission to land on the Moon in less than 8 hours

Chandrayaan-3 Countdown Timer: After a long wait, today, August 23, is when ISRO will attempt to bring the Vikram Lander to the surface of the Moon safely. The scheduled time for the touchdown is 6:04 PM.

India can make history by becoming the fourth country to successfully land on the Moon. The Chandrayaan-3 Countdown Timer is on as ISRO attempts to land spacecraft. (PTI)

Chandrayaan-3 Countdown Timer: In less than 9 hours from now, India will reach one of its biggest milestones in space exploration and join the exclusive club of countries having done so as its 4th member - the other three being the US, Russia, and China. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched the Chandrayaan-3 mission on July 14 to take the Vikram Lander and Pragyan rover to the Moon, to explore the south pole region. This is the second attempt by ISRO to land on the Moon. So, ahead of its landing attempt, let us know a little bit more about this space mission.

Chandrayaan-3 components

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has three components — a lander (Vikram), a rover (Pragyan), and a propulsion module. The lander and rover separated from the propulsion module on August 17 and commenced their descent toward the lunar surface. Meanwhile, the propulsion module will stay in orbit for months and years, and carry out its own series of experiments. Recently, the Lander Module (LM) of Chandrayaan-3 made contact with the orbiter or propulsion module of Chandrayaan-2, establishing two-way communication.

What happens after the lunar landing

If the Chandrayaan-3 mission is able to successfully land on the Moon, the Vikram Lander will open up on one side, creating a ramp for the Pragyan rover. Pragyan Rover, which has the tricolor and ISRO logo on it, will move out of the lander after a period of 4 hours. Moving at a speed of 1 cm per second, it will use its navigation cameras to scan the surface of the Moon. Its main objective is to collect data on the composition structure of the Moon's atmosphere. On the other hand, Vikram Lander will also be collecting data on near-surface plasma, density, thermal properties, seismicity, and structural composition of the Moon's crust and mantle.

The rover will get two weeks (one lunar cycle) to study the atmosphere of the Moon. The Pragyan rover is solar-powered and can only communicate with the Lander. Vikram Lander, on the other hand, can communicate with Earth directly and share all the data. As an emergency backup, the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter can also be used for communication.