Chennai, Aug 21 (FN Agency) Ahead of its eagerly awaited soft landing on the moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday released the images of far side of Lunar area captured by Chandrayaan-3. ISRO said the images of Lunar far side area were captured by the Lander Hazard Detection and Avoidance Camera (LHDAC). In all four images captured by LHDAC were released by ISRO.
This camera that assists in locating a safe landing area–without boulders or deep trenches–during the descent is developed by ISRO at Space Applications Centre (SAC), Bengaluru. SAC is one of the major centres of ISRO that focuses on the design of space-borne instruments for ISRO missions and development and operationalisation of applications of space technology for societal benefits. The applications cover communication, broadcasting, navigation, disaster monitoring, meteorology, oceanography, environment monitoring and natural resources survey.
In a significant milestone, Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter on Monday formally welcomed the Lander Module (LM) of Chandryaan-3, which will make a soft landing on the moon on August 23 to explore the South Polar Region. The two way communication between two has been established, ISRO said. In post of “X”, ISRO said “Chandrayaan-3 Mission: ‘Welcome, buddy!’ Ch-2 orbiter formally welcomed Ch-3 LM.” “Two-way communication between the two is established. “Mission Operations Complex (MOX) has now more routes to reach the LM”, it said. Chandrayaan-2, India’s second Lunar mission, was launched in July 2019 and the Lander crashlanded due to a technical glitch very close to the landing site in September 2019, making the mission 99.99 per cent success.
ISRO said in a monumental event in space exploration, Chandrayaan-3 will land in moon at 1804 hrs on August 23. The Space Agency performed the second and final deboosting operation of LM on Sunday early morning. Upon landing, Rover will be ejected out from the LM for conducting insitu experiments on the Lunar region. The second deboosting operation was done at 0200 hrs early Sunday morning and the LM would await sunrise at the designated landing site and the powered descent will commence on August 23, it said. After this manoeuvre, the Chandryaan-3 spacecraft was now located at about 25 km x 134 km. In a social media post ISRO in an update on Chandrayaan-3 Mission said the second and final deboosting operation has successfully reduced the LM orbit to 25 km x 134 km. “The module would undergo internal checks and await the sun-rise at the designated landing site”, ISRO said.