Hold your breath as Chandrayaan3 takes us on a jaw-dropping zoom-in journey around the moon!
Since undergoing the Lunar orbit insertion in the evening hours of Saturday and starting to circle the moon, this is the first time that the craft"s Lunar orbit is being reduced. Since Saturday, the craft has been in a 164 km x 18074 km orbit around the moon. With the engine firing done on Sunday night, the craft"s orbit has been lowered to 170 km x 4313 km.
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The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has released the first visuals of the Moon as captured by Chandrayaan-3, India's third lunar mission.
The visuals were captured a day after the spacecraft successfully entered the lunar orbit. The video showed the Moon in bluish-green colour with many craters."The Moon, as viewed by Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft during Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) on August 5, 2023," tweeted the Mission's official Twitter handle and shared the video.
Since undergoing the Lunar orbit insertion in the evening hours of Saturday and starting to circle the moon, this is the first time that the craft's Lunar orbit is being reduced. Since Saturday, the craft has been in a 164 km x 18074 km orbit around the moon. With the engine firing done on Sunday night, the craft's orbit has been lowered to 170 km x 4313 km.
The Moon, as viewed by #Chandrayaan3 spacecraft during Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) on August 5, 2023.#ISRO pic.twitter.com/xQtVyLTu0c
— LVM3-M4/CHANDRAYAAN-3 MISSION (@chandrayaan_3) August 6, 2023
"The spacecraft successfully underwent a planned orbit reduction manoeuvre. The retro-firing of engines brought it closer to the Moon's surface, now to 170 km x 4313 km. The next operation to further reduce the orbit is scheduled for August 9, 2023, between 13:00 and 14:00 Hrs. IST." ISRO said in a tweet.
The journey so far...
Chandrayaan-3 was launched on July 14 from India's spaceport, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. Sixteen minutes from lift-off, the craft was placed in a highly elliptical orbit around the Earth. Thereafter, by performing five engine burns on as many occasions, the craft gradually raised its orbit and slingshot itself further away from Earth, while continuing to remain in Earth's orbit.
On the intervening night of July 31 and August 1, Chandrayaan-3 performed its Trans-Lunar injection burn. By this long-duration firing of its engines, the craft was pushed out of Earth's gravitational influence and hurled towards Lunar gravitational influence. "By firing its engines for the TLI, the craft gained departure velocity and set course from the earth orbit towards a location in the vicinity of the moon," Dr Mylswamy Annadurai, former Director of ISRO's UR Rao Satellite Centre, had told WION.
The journey that lay ahead...
ISRO has said that the craft's next operation would be the second reduction of orbit around the moon. It is scheduled for August 9, around 1-2 pm IST. Just like ISRO slingshot the craft away from earth by performing multiple engine firings, a similar process would be carried out for the reverse effect. Engine retro firings would be done to bring the craft closer to the lunar surface and eventually into a circular orbit around the moon.
"When the lander separates from the propulsion module, the craft will be in a 100x100kms circular orbit around the moon. The craft would be in that orbit for 4-5 days and we would use that period to test the crucial systems and sensors that would be used for the lunar landing (because this is the first time we would be testing them in space)," M Sankaran, Director of ISRO's UR Rao Satellite Centre, had told WION.