Chandryaaan-3 orbit reduced for 3rd time, begins Orbit circularisation phase

Chennai: India's third Lunar Mission Chandrayaan-3 on Monday commenced the Orbit circularisation phase after its orbit was reduced for the third time.

After today's precise maneuvre performed between 1130hrs & 1230hrs it has achieved a near-circular orbit of 150- km x 177 km.

The next Operation is planned on Wednesday when the the propulsion module will separate from the lander ahead of the soft landing on the South pole region of the moon on August 23 evening.

In an update ISRO said "Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Orbit circularisation phase commences.

"Precise maneuvre performed today has achieved a near-circular orbit of 150 km x 177 km".

The next operation is planned for August 16, 2023, around 0830 hrs, it said.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had on August 9 successfully performed the second crucial maneuvre to further reduce the Orbit of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft and took it even closer to the moon's surface.

After the second operation, the orbit of Chandrayaan-3's was reduced to 174 km x 1437 km and was taken further closer to the moon, it said.

After the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was injected into the Lunar Orbit on August 5, it had successfully underwent the first planned Orbit reduction manoeuver late on night of April 6.

The retrofiring of engines has brought the spacecraft closer to the Moon's surface to 170 X 4313 km.

This maneuver was the first in a series of maneuvers planned to gradually reduce Chandrayaan-3's Orbit and position it over the Lunar poles.

"As the mission progressed, a series of maneuvers were done to to gradually reduce the Chandrayaan-3's orbit and position it over the lunar poles", ISRO said.

After some maneuvers, the propulsion module will separate from the lander while in orbit. Following that, a series of complex braking maneuvers will be executed to facilitate a soft landing in the hitherto unexplored South Polar region of the Moon on August 23.

The Space Agency said the health of Chandrayaan-3 is normal.

"Throughout the mission, the health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Network (ISTRAC), the

Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antenna at Byalalu, near Bengaluru, with the support from European Space Agency (ESA) and JPL Deep space antenna.

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was successfully launched by ISRO's heaviest launch vehicle LVM3-M4 from the spaceport of Sriharikota on July 14.

After a flight duration of about 16 minutes, it was precisely placed in an elliptic parking orbit of 36,500 km x 170 km. The injection of Chandrayaan-3 in the orbit marked its 42-day journey towards the Moon traversing more than 3.80 lakh kms that would culminate in the soft landing on August 23, ISRO Chairman S.Somanath said.

After five Orbit raising maneuvres since the July 14 launch, the spacecraft moved out of the earth's orbit and sent to the Trans Lunar Orbit by successfully completing the Lunar Orbit Injection (LOI) on August one.

In a key manoeuvre — a slingshot move — the spacecraft was sent successfully towards the Moon from Earth’s orbit.

The soft landing on the moon is planned at 5.47 p.m on August 23.

After injection into the Lunar orbit, the spacecraft's orbit is being further manoeuvred for the soft landing on August 23 evening to explore the hitherto unexplored south polar region of the moon.

The LOI marked the beginning of the lunar-centric phase during which the spacecraft will orbit the Moon four times, getting progressively further closer to the lunar surface with each orbit.

The Chandrayaan-3 consists of an indigenous Lander Module (LM), propulsion module (PM), and a rover with the objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for future inter-planetary missions.

The success of Chandrayaan-3 will make it the surface mission closest to the lunar south pole to date, a region of the moon that has been found to be geologically unique and host to spots in permanent shadow.

Through the Chandrayaan-3 mission, ISRO is crossing new frontiers by demonstrating soft landing on the lunar surface by its lunar module and demonstrate roving on the lunar terrain.

It is expected to be supportive to ISRO’s future interplanetary missions.

ISRO said Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. (UNI)