Chandrayaan 3: Vikram Lander, Pragyan rover begin operation, updates ISRO

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday gave the latest updates on Chandrayaan 3 mission informing that all activities are proceeding as planned, and all systems are operating smoothly.

Today, just a day after the historic launch the Lander Module's payloads, including ILSA, RAMBHA, and ChaSTE, have been activated, the space agency said. It added that mobility operations for the Pragyan Rover have been initiated.

Additionally, the agency said, the SHAPE payload on the Propulsion Module was activated on Sunday.

Chandrayaan-3 mission detailed timeline

Here is the detailed timeline of all the developments in the Chandrayaan 3 mission till today.

• July 6: ISRO announces Mission Chandrayaan-3 launch date of July 14 from Sriharikota's second pad.

• July 7: Successful vehicle electrical tests completed.

• July 11: Comprehensive 24-hour 'Launch Rehearsal' simulating the entire launch process concludes.

• July 14: LVM3 M4 vehicle launches Chandrayaan-3 into designated orbit.

• July 15: First orbit-raising manoeuvre successful, reaching 41762 km x 173 km orbit.

• July 17: Second orbit-raising manoeuvre places Chandrayaan-3 at 41603 km x 226 km orbit.

• July 22: Fourth orbit-raising manoeuvre establishes spacecraft in 71351 km x 233 km orbit.

• July 25: Another successful orbit-raising manoeuvre.

• August 1: Chandrayaan-3 inserted into translunar orbit (288 km x 369328 km).

• August 5: Successful lunar orbit insertion (164 km x 18074 km).

• August 6: Lunar orbit lowered to 170 km x 4,313 km.

• August 9: ISRO carefully moves the spacecraft's path lower in its orbit around the moon. It has achieved a lunar orbit of 174 km x 1437 km

• August 14: Chandrayaan-3 gets closer to the moon's surface in another controlled bringing it into an orbit of 150 km x 177 km

• August 16: The Indian spacecraft performs the fifth and final Moon-bound manoeuvre positioning itself in a near circular Lunar orbit of 163*153 km.

• August 17: The landing module, comprising the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover, gets separated from its propulsion system.

• August 18: Chandrayaan 3 successfully completed a 'deboosting' operation that reduced its orbit to 113 km x 157 km

• August 20: The Chandrayaan-3 made the final orbit adjustment by reducing it to be around 134*25 km, the farthest and nearest point from the moon respectively.

• August 23: The planned touchdown was successfully achieved.

What payloads do the Vikram lander, Pragyan rover and propulsion module have?

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.

Lander payloads: Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature; 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. A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA is accommodated for lunar laser ranging studies.

Rover payloads: Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of the landing site.