That was not an era of Selfies. But I have Dedicated a chapter about it in my book Tales From Shining and Sinking India - There is a chapter on the moon. How India and our space program. which was made fun of by the international community. They shocked the international community and carried out such low-cost missions. After that, it is the turn of Chandrayaan-2. Partial failure as our lander Unfortunately crashed on the moon but the orbiter is still functioning - and will help in this Mission. Finally comes Chandrayaan-3. Watched the launch and landing live. I couldn't help but make an article today. Today I will share with you my happiness. First and foremost, Congratulations to S Somnath, Our ISRO chief and his team, Who contributed to this wind of science. Today is the day of our country's scientists because They have brought India to the moon through Chandrayaan 3. Now let's quickly talk about Why this machine is so critical.
Why do so many people and the international scientific community eagerly follow this mission?
Because Chandran 3 went to land in the Lunars South Polar region and now it has successfully landed. You can say that it is 370 miles from the exact South Pole of the Moon. If you compare, it is landing in the same way as we are landing on the edge of Antarctica, not on the very top of the South Pole, but it is landing in the Lonar South. Now this is the same place where unfortunately the Chandrayaan 2. Crashed in 2019.
Now this is the same place where unfortunately Chandra crashed in 2019. This is the same place where Russia was trying to land its Luna 25 spacecraft. Unfortunately, that too crashed. Otherwise, Russia would have become the first nation to send a soft-land probe on the lunar south. This space mission is not easy. And that is why there is so much pride today.
Imagine, that Russia sent the probe to the moon first, and it tried to land Luna 2, It crashed, but that was the first probe to reach the lunar surface. I am talking about 1959.
Luna 9, in 1966, became the first spacecraft that did a soft landing, a survivable landing, on the lunar surface. And that same Russia, okay it was then USSR but now that same Russia's space program today sends Luna 25, but it crashes so much experience decades of experience, even after so much scientific achievement, it crashed. That's why it's very important. I will talk about it in a little more detail, what is the state of other countries. Landing on the South Pole is it overhyped or a big thing? Because the spacecraft that have landed to date is near the lunar equator. But now, the scientific community is speculating that there could be frozen water. The South Pole region on the lunar surface is in permanent shadow areas. Because when the moon revolves, this region is hidden from the rays of the Sun and in these, there is a possibility of ice and water.
If this ice and water is found then you can imagine how much benefit it will be for the astronauts in the future. What happened today is historic as Vikram lander and Pragyan rover makers first nation to land on the Southern polar region of the moon. And we have become the fourth country today that has landed on the moon. And even bigger than that we were able to do this on a budget of 600 to 615 crores rupees - the budget of the Adipurush movie.
Can there be a better super hit than this?
S. Somnath himself, the chief of ISRO himself says that what ISRO has achieved, it has achieved on very few resources. And it is a matter of pride that no one else in the world can do such cost-effective missions.
Now, before we talk in more detail about today's landing, we will talk about why even the best or left behind when it comes to landing at the lunar South Pole. India's Vikram Moon lander, 2019, part of the Chandrayaan -2 mission, crashed. Israel's non-profit LS beresheet lander also failed in April 2019. And this descent and landing is so difficult because in the last 15 minutes of the automated systems that have to work, so many variables are created which is why ISRO has also called it 15 minutes of terror. Because the lander has to successfully carry out complex commands, and then fire the rocket engine, you have no scope of failure and zero error chance. Gravity of the Moon, which can change along with the area. Plus, uneven terrain.
The dust rises because when you fire rocket engines, there is a chance for that too All these are being managed, billions of miles away, autonomously Chandrayaan-2 crashed while landing in the final moments. Israel Beresheet lost communication in the final moments. It was just 500 ft away from the Moon's surface but crashed. What happened with Luna 25 Russia has such a vast experience but the same thing goes wrong. In the end, when they tried to make orbital adjustments to prepare for the landing, Lunar 25 fired its engine so that the spacecraft could come into an elliptical orbit. This is the penultimate stage before landing.. after that contact is lost with the spacecraft. Because the engine was programmed to fire for 84 seconds but it fired for 127 seconds. Just This small mistake and your spacecraft goes straight into the collision course and collides with the Moon it is destroyed. A lot of preparations were made so that this does not happen to Chandrayaan 3.
The transfer happens when a high-speed, horizontal position aircraft is brought near the Moon's surface, brought in a vertical position and gently landed. It is very complicated - Don't take it so long. There were four phases.. my mind was blown when I saw this scientific achievement at low budgets. First is the rough braking phase.. spacecraft is flying 30 km from the surface at 6000 kph.
So first you fire the rocket engine and then you slow it down And this to an in this cycle if you are not able to do it then it will be like Luna 25 rocket engine was fired wrongly and your spacecraft is gone.
After this, comes the second phase. Height of 7.42 km, the lander goes in an altitude hold phase stays for 10 seconds, and tilts from a horizontal to a vertical position while travelling 3.48 km. So you changing your direction and are also coming closer to the lunar surface slowly. After that comes the fine-breaking phase.
This is a very delicate phase of about 175 seconds. Lander comes to a fully vertical position and slowly tries to bring its speed around zero.
This was the situation between the altitude hold phase and fine breaking phase when the control of Chandrayaan 2 was lost with ISRO and it Crashed.
At the time, it was 335 meters from the surface of the Moon. That is why even today, you can spot Chandrayaan-2 with the orbiter of Chandrayaan 2. But unfortunately, it landed so hard that its communication system failed. And this is not the final phase the terminal descent, the final phase When the spacecraft slowly, vertically, at almost zero speed, lands softly on the Moon's surface. And the announcement of a soft and successful landing happened on Twitter.
Chandrayaan-3 tweet published by ISRO India I reached my destination and you too.
It was Twitter a lot. This shows great interest in our space program, it is a quality of ISRO that learns from mistakes and bounces back. Many algorithms were changed for Chandrayaan 3, many tests were conducted and everything was finally calibrated. Lander could hover so if the surface was uneven it could change the position and the landing area was also increased so that you could land anywhere within a radius of 4 km, not 2.5 km - side selection was done carefully. Chandrayaan 2 has given us a very detailed map of the Moon so, we had more opportunities and options. ISRO chief S. Somnath had said that the mission this time was failure-based. Scientists looked at every failure point and tried to improve it. How to upgrade from Chandrayaan 2 to Chandrayaan 3. This means strengthened legs - if for some reason the rocket fuel runs out or the calibration is not correct then it can land even at 10 kph. Because your tank is on Chandrayaan 3 more solar panels and additional instruments are installed. All these changes were made.
Now what will happen next History has just begun.
In the next few hours, I think you are reading this article, a ramp will open and a 6-wheeled vehicle, a ramp will be made for Pragyan Rover from within the lander and this rover will come out.
After 4 hours once the duster settles down, with the navigation cameras on - this rover will go to the moon. Our flag is on the rover and when these robo wheels are running on the Moon ISRO logo will be imprinted on the surface which will remain there for millions of years. Rover has instruments, a payload which will study the moon's elemental composition and data will be sent back. This lander will do its research near-surface plasma, ions and electrons, a very thin layer of atmospheric covering in the Moon. Measurements of thermal properties of the lunar surface, which are the seismic activities in the landing area, which can be determined by it on one hand, have Chandrayan-2 already done a thorough mapping. And now we will be able to understand its surface mapping and surface composition. It is a two-week time span and after that, a dark winter will come. So this is the two-week time span where so much research will be done in the next 2 weeks. And if by any chance any communication loss occurs of the rover, then Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is also there which will work as a contingency communication relay.
It was launched 4 years ago. Chandrayan-2 satellite, orbiter, is still working and will still work for us as a relay station.
Chandrayan - The Most Successful Series
If you compare it internationally, it is the most successful series of spacecraft. Chandrayan-1, super successful, first shot, reached directly to the moon. Very few people know that there was a lunar impactor of Chandrayaan 1, a small lunar impactor probe that had India's flag on it which was forcefully Crashed on the lunar surface. So that the lunar dust could be studied. So it was a super duper success, again at a very low cost. Chandrayan-2 partial success lander failed but the orbiter did a great job. It is still working and an orbiting instrument of the same Chandran-2 identified signs of water trapped in minerals and trapped in the polar area. The international community is now researching more about that.
Finally, Chandrayaan-3 has already had a prosperous Soft landing on the lunar south pole and the rover coming out. We will get more information in the next two weeks.
Finally, what is the future of this rover?
This is just the beginning. If such low-budget successful missions keep happening then NASA will have to go back to the drawing board. Next is a manned space mission. Very soon our astronauts will go into space in our rocket. This project is running a little late, but I think after the success of Chandrayaan 3, we will see the results very soon. Mars Lander, remember, is also a world record. Because for the first time, in the first shot, we sent a satellite to Mars, which no other country had done in the first attempt. And now the next step will be to land on Mars. The technology gained from here to land on the moon will be very beneficial for Mars too. Along with that, ISRO is significant in the commercial space launch. They will pay for themselves at the rate at which we are launching satellites of others. Along with that, the government has also allowed private space players. So, a company like SpaceX might be formed in India in the next few years after seeing all this, the DRDO people should say that we have reached Mars and have landed on the Moon to make some drones and fighter jets so that we don't have to import them from the USA. ISRO clearly shows us that if you give our institutions autonomy and even if you don't give them a lot of money, what they can do at a low cost and how much is possible. Look at the international publications. And there is a discussion about ISRO everywhere. And finally, I will say that article 51A[h] also says a fundamental duty. Our government And that is to develop scientific temper. Humanism And The spirit Of inquiry. Many children and teenagers have seen successful landings today, absolutely amazed and a proud feeling right now will develop a scientific temper. It will also be a big achievement. So it has been a great day. I am amazed and proud feeling really that our country has done such a great thing. I hope ISRO get all the support and reaches not only Mars but Pluto as well very soon.
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