The countdown for the launch of India’s third moon mission on July 14 is expected to begin soon with the completion of the “launch rehearsal” on Monday.
“The ‘Launch Rehearsal’ simulating the entire launch preparation and process lasting 24 hours has been concluded,” said the Indian space agency on Monday.
And just after 2.50 p.m. on July 14, India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft will begin its own long moon journey after being ejected by the rocket LVM3, it said. After traveling about 3.84 lakh km, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is expected to land on the lunar surface on August 23 or 24.
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The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft comprises a propulsion module (weighing 2,148 kg), a lander (1,723.89 kg) and a rover (26 kg), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.
Incidentally, the Chandrayaan-2 payload weighed about 3.8 tons with the orbiter weighing 2,379 kg, and the Vikram lander 1,444 kg (including the Pragyan rover 27 kg).
The main purpose of Chandrayaan-3 is to safely land the lander on the moon’s soil.
Following that, the rover will roll out to do the experiments. The life of the payload carried by the propulsion module post-ejection of the lander is between three and six months.
On the other hand, the mission life of the lander and the rover is 1 Lunar day or 14 Earth days, the ISRO said.
According to the Indian space agency, the propulsion module has a Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and Polari metric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit. The lander payloads are Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature; the Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) for measuring the seismicity around the landing site; Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate the plasma density and its variations.
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