Chandrayaan-3 integrated with launch vehicle LMV3

Subject :Science and technology

Section: Space technology

Context:

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which is planning to launch the Chandrayaan-3 moon mission in July, has integrated the spacecraft with the launch vehicle — Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM3).
The launch date is not announced yet, but the launch window for the Chandrayaan-3 is between July 12 and 19.

Chandrayaan program:

Chandrayaan-1 was the first Indian lunar probe under the Chandrayaan program.
It was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation in October 2008, and operated until August 2009.
The mission included a lunar orbiter and an impactor.
India launched the spacecraft using a PSLV-XL rocket.
India was the fourth country to place its flag insignia on the Moon.
The location of impact was named Jawahar Point.

Goals:

High-resolution mineralogical and chemical imaging of the permanently shadowed north- and south-polar regions
Searching for surface or subsurface lunar water-ice, especially at the lunar poles
Due to technical issues Chandrayaan-1 stopped communicating in August 2009 and ISRO officially declared that the mission was over. Chandrayaan-1 operated for 312 days as opposed to the intended two years, but the mission achieved most of its scientific objectives.

Findings:

The recent images sent by Chandrayaan-1 suggest that the moon may be rusting along the poles. Data sent indicates the presence of hematite at the lunar poles.

Chandrayan-2:

Chandrayaan-2 is India’s first lander mission.
It consists of an Orbiter, Lander and Rover, all equipped with scientific instruments to study the moon.
Chandrayaan-2 was planned to make a landing at a site where no earlier mission had gone, i.e near the South pole of the moon.
However, a part of the mission failed as the Vikram lander crash-landed on the lunar surface.
A successful landing would have made India the fourth country in the world to do so after the US, the erstwhile USSR and China, and the first country to have landed so close to the lunar South Pole.

Chandrayaan-3 mission:

Chandrayaan-3 is India’s third moon mission, and is a follow-up to Chandrayaan-2, to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.
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 inter-planetary missions.
According to ISRO, the lander has 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.
The main function of PM is to carry the LM from launch vehicle injection till final lunar 100-km circular polar orbit, and separate the LM from PM.
Apart from this, the Propulsion Module also has one scientific payload, as a value addition, which will be operated post-separation of the Lander Module.