‘Chandrayaan-3 poised for success’: Ex-ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair confident on moon mission
Chandrayaan-3: If successful, it will put India among the elite club of nations including the US, China and the former Soviet Union to have achieved the feat.
Ahead of Chandrayaan-3 mission launch on Friday, former Indian Space Research Organisation chairman Madhavan Nair explained how India's third lunar mission has very high chances of succeeding as it has been devised by extensively studying the mistakes from Chandrayaan-2 mission of 2019. (Chandrayaan-3 launch LIVE updates)
Chandrayaan-3 launched Friday from Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota to attempt a soft landing on the moon's surface.
“Chandrayaan-2's soft landing was failure at the last minute (the lander had lost communication with the ground state just 2.1 km above the moon's surface) but all the operations before that were successful… the ISRO had revisited all the data that have been collected from the mission and corrections have been taken in all the elements” to ensure a foolproof mechanism, Nair told PTI.
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Nair said that changes were made to the technical aspects such as thrusters configurations, and the landing gear was further strengthened as well as computer software modified. “…whatever was humanly possible, has been done” to ensure the mission is a success, he said, adding that ISRO's track record is to learn from its mistakes and leap towards success and “Chandrayaan-3 is that stage.”
Chandrayaan-3's journey will last for over a month before landing on the lunar surface later in August. The mission is designed to exihibit three major objectives of a safe and soft landing on the moon, to demonstrate the Rover roving on its surface and study its environment. “Chandrayaan-3 consists of an indigenous Lander module (LM), Propulsion module (PM) and a Rover with an objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for interplanetary missions,” ISRO explained on its website about the project.
If successful, Indian will join the United States, China and the former Soviet Union in having achieved the rare accomplishment.
