The ISRO via a series of tweets through X has been updating the movement of the Chandrayann-3 mission and how it’s a historic moment for the country, as the successful landing would make India the world’s first country to make a soft landing on the Moon’s south pole.

The Indian space agency has said that with Chandrayaan-3, it is expecting future interplanetary missions, and the deployment of the rover and in-situ scientific experiment would help in scaling new heights in lunar expeditions.

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Here’s the role of the lander, rover, and propulsion module:

1) Lander and its role

With the lander, the space agency would become capable of soft land at a specified lunar site. Apart from this, the lander would deploy the rover which will help in carrying out in-situ chemical analysis of the Moon’s surface during its mobility, reported CNBC-TV18.

The lander has three payloads:

a) RAMBHA-LP (Langmuir Probe): The instrument will help in measuring the near-surface plasma (ions and electrons) density and its changes with time.

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b) ChaSTE (Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment): With this, ISRO would be able to carry out the measurements of the lunar surface’s thermal properties near the polar region.

c) ILSA (Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity): This instrument would help in measuring seismicity around the landing site and delineating the structure of the lunar crust and mantle.

2) Rover and its role:

As per details, provided by ISRO, the rover has 2 payloads.

a) APXS (Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer): This instrument will help in deriving the chemical composition and inferring mineralogical composition, which would further enhance understanding of the moon’s surface.

b) LIBS (Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope): This payload would help in determining the elemental composition (Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, Fe) of the moon’s soil and rocks around the landing site.

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3) Propulsion module:

Last but not least, is the propulsion module, also called the orbiter, that would circle the moon. It would observe the light coming from the Earth and help in understanding the nature of the distant planet that circles stars other than the Sun.

SHAPE (Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth): This is the only payload in propulsion that would help in studying the spectro-polarimetric signatures of the habitable planet Earth in the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength range (1-1.7 μm).

With agency inputs.

Updated: 23 Aug 2023, 03:30 PM IST