The Indian Panorama

Tag: Sriharikota

  • What will Chandrayaan-3 do on the Moon?

    What will Chandrayaan-3 do on the Moon?

    As the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) gears up to launch the Chandrayaan-3 mission to the Moon, the world is awaiting the discoveries that it will unravel on the lunar surface. The mission is likely to be launched this year and Isro has learned from the failure of the previous mission.

    Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-up to the Chandrayan-2 mission that will demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface and consists of a lander-rover configuration. The mission will be launched aboard India’s most powerful rocket, the LVM-III, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

    While the Indian space agency is yet to say anything about the final launch dates, it is likely to be in the second or third quarter of 2023.

    The mission is aimed at better understanding the Moon’s composition. Isro has laid out three main objectives for the mission, which include demonstrating a safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, demonstrating the rover’s roving capabilities on the moon and performing in-situ scientific observations. Isro said that the mission’s Chandra Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) will measure the thermal conductivity and temperature, while the Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) will measure the seismicity around the landing site. The Langmuir Probe (LP) will estimate the plasma density and its variations and a passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA is accommodated on the mission for lunar laser ranging studies.

    “Chandrayaan-3 consists of an indigenous Lander module (LM), Propulsion module (PM), and a Rover with the objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for Interplanetary missions. The Lander will have the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the Rover which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility. The Lander and the Rover have scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the lunar surface,” Isro said in new detail.

                    Source: India Today

  • ISRO rocket with three satellites lifts off from Sriharikota

    ISRO rocket with three satellites lifts off from Sriharikota

    SRIHARIKOTA (TIP): ISRO’s LV D2 carrying EOS-07 satellite and two co-passenger payloads lifted off from the spaceport here on Friday, February 10. In its second developmental flight, LV D2 carried EOS-07, an earth observation satellite as its main payload and two others — Janus-1 built by US-based Antaris and Chennai-headquartered Space Kidz India’s Azaadi SAT-2. This was ISRO’s maiden mission this year. At the end of a six-and-a-half hour countdown, the 34-metre-tall rocket lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, even as ISRO has pinned hopes on it to lead the space agency to success in tapping the small satellite launch vehicle market.

    The maiden flight of LV on August 7, 2022 was a partial failure due to an orbit anomaly and deviation in the flight path of the rocket. LV caters to the launch of up to 500kg satellites to low earth orbits on ‘launch-on-demand’ basis. It provides low-cost access to space, offers low turn-around time and flexibility in accommodating multiple satellites, and demands minimal launch infrastructure.

    EOS-07 is a 156.3kg satellite which has been designed, developed and realized by ISRO. New experiments include mm-Wave Humidity Sounder and Spectrum Monitoring Payload. While Janus-1 is a 10.2kg satellite, the 8.7kg AzaadiSAT-2 is a combined effort of about 750 girl students across India guided by Space Kidz India, Chennai.

    The mission objective is to inject these satellites in a 450-km circular orbit.

    (Source: PTI)