Chandrayaan 3 on the verge of scripting history! Why the last 20 minutes are critical for soft-landing of Vikram lander
If the Chandrayaan-3 mission succeeds in making a touchdown on moon and in landing a robotic lunar rover in ISRO"s second attempt in four years, India will become the fourth country to master the technology of soft-landing on the lunar surface after the US, China and the erstwhile Soviet Union.
Total Views |
India and the whole world are waiting for the moment when ISRO’s lander will land on the moon as part of Chandrayaan 3.The soft landing of Vikram lander of Chandrayaan-3 mission will make India the only country in the world to achieve this feat on Moon's south pole and the fourth country to have a lander on Moon after the United States, Russia, and China.
But the last 20 minutes right before the scheduled landing are set to become the most nail-biting moments of the mission. Scientists say that the last 20 minutes are crucial for a soft landing. As per the report's the last 20 minutes of the mission will comprise of an autonomous movement.
In a easy way imagine, Chandrayaan-3 is moving at a remarkable speed – similar to how a bullet train would feel if you were standing next to it. After receiving commands from Bengaluru, the Vikram lander will start hurtling towards the moon surface at a velocity of 1.68 km per second which is nearly 6048 km per hour -which is almost ten times the velocity of an airplane.
ISRO has said Vikram lander will then slow down with all its engines firing - but the lander is still almost horizontal to the surface of the moon - this is called the rough braking phase which lasts for about 11 minutes.
This controlled slowdown will reduce its initial speed to a quarter, and the pull of the Moon's gravity will guide Vikram Lander downwards at around 60 meters per second.
Later, ISRO has said the Vikram lander will be made vertical to the moon surface, with this begins the 'fine braking phase'. It was in the fine braking phase, when the Vikram lander during the Chandrayaan-2 launch went out of control and tumbled to a crash.
At 800 meters above the moon surface, both the horizontal and vertical velocities come to zero and the Vikram lander hovers above the lunar surface surveying the landing strip.The Vikram lander goes down further to stop to hover once again at 150 meters taking images for hazard detection and searching for the best landing site.
It will then touch down on the lunar surface with just two engines firing and the legs have been designed to take a maximum impact of 3m/second or about 10.8 km per hour.Once the sensors on the legs feel the lunar surface, the engines will shut down ending the critical 20 minutes.
Chandrayaan 3 lunar landing likely to be postponed?
It should be noted that, as per the ISRO scientist, the decision on whether or not it would be appropriate to land Chandrayaan-3 on August 23 (Wednesday) will be taken based on the health of the lander module and the conditions on the Moon
“Two hours before Chandrayaan-3 lands on the Moon, we will take a decision on whether or not it will be appropriate to land it at that time based on the health of the lander module and the conditions on the Moon. In case, if any factor appears to be not favourable, then we will land the module on the Moon on August 27,” Nilesh M Desai, Director, Space Applications Centre, ISRO said.
When and where to watch
The live telecast of the landing operations will begin at 5:20pm IST on Wednesday. The historic event will be streamed on News Bharati W website, its YouTube channel, and Facebook page.