Thermal Issue To Communication Blackout – ISRO Chief Lists Challenges Faced By Chandrayaan-3 On Moon. WATCH

Chandrayaan-3: ISRO Chief S Somanath explained that one of the challenges on the Moon is that objects can hit any place on the surface of Earth's natural satellite due to the absence of an atmosphere.

Chandrayaan-3 Challenges: The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO’s) Chairman S Somanath on Thursday described the challenges faced by Chandrayaan-3 on the surface of the Moon. He explained that objects can hit any place on the surface of the Moon due to the absence of an atmosphere, news agency PTI reported. He also said there was a thermal issue and a problem of communication blackout. 

Chandrayaan-3 made a historic soft-landing on the Moon’s south pole on August 23,2023, at 6:04 pm IST. This made India the first country to softly land a spacecraft on the lunar south pole, and the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon. 

ISRO Chief On Pragyan Rover And Vikram Lander

The Pragyan rover rolled out of the Vikram lander about four hours after the historic touchdown. Somanath said that both the lander and the rover are “perfectly healthy and everything is working very well”. He also said that there will be further movements. 

The ISRO Chief explained that the Pragyan rover has two instruments, and both will explore the elemental and chemical composition of the lunar surface. He also said that ISRO will conduct a robotic planning exercise which is important for future exploration missions for India, news agency ANI reported.

Expressing his happiness at the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon’s south pole, the ISRO Chief said: "We are equally proud like every other Indian that we had a successful landing this time. We look forward to more challenging tasks”.

ISRO Chief On Chandrayaan-3's Landing Site

ISRO said that Chandrayaan-3 chose a relatively flat region for landing.

Somanath said that Chandrayaan-3 landed “well within the area identified for the landing”. 

Explaining why ISRO chose the lunar south pole to land Chandrayaan-3, Somanath said that the Moon’s south pole has a specific advantage of being less illuminated by the Sun, and a lot of scientific discoveries are likely to be made in that region. He also said that scientists working on the Moon showed a lot of interest in the south pole of the Moon because everyone wants to travel to space and colonise celestial bodies other than Earth. 

ISRO Chief On Future Indian Space Missions

The ISRO Chief also described India’s future plans in the space sector. He explained that the Aditya-L1 mission, India’s first space-based solar mission, is getting ready for launch in September, and that the Gaganyaan programme is still in progress. He said that ISRO will probably conduct the first leg of the programme by the end of September or early October in order to demonstrate the crew module and crew escape capability.

After Gaganyaan-1, several test missions will be conducted until ISRO launches India’s first manned mission, which is the Gaganyaan programme’s third leg. India’s first human spaceflight mission is likely to be launched by 2025, the ISRO Chief said.