The Lander Module of Chandrayaan-3, comprising Vikram lander and Pragyan rover, will undergo its second deboosting operation tomorrow (August 20), the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) said. This will lower the module to an orbit that takes it much closer to the Moon's surface.
On Friday, the space agency announced that the health of Chandrayaan-3's Lander Module is normal, and added that the module has successfully undergone a deboosting (slowing down) operation taking it closer to the Moon.
"The Lander Module (LM) health is normal. LM successfully underwent a deboosting operation that reduced its orbit to 113 km x 157 km. The second deboosting operation is scheduled for August 20, 2023, around 02:00 Hrs IST," Isro said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Prior to the deboosting operation, the Lander Module of Chandrayaan-3 had successfully separated from the Propulsion Module on Thursday, 35 days after the satellite was launched on July 14.
ISRO sources had earlier told PTI, that after separation, the lander is expected to undergo "deboost" (the process of slowing down) operations to place it in an orbit, where the Perilune (the orbit's closest point to the Moon) is 30 kilometres and Apolune (farthest point from the Moon) is 100 km, from where the soft landing on the south polar region of the Moon will be attempted.
At around 30 km altitude, the lander enters the powered braking phase, and begins to use its thrusters to reach the surface of the Moon, they said, adding that at an altitude of about 100 m, the lander would scan the surface to check whether there are any obstacles and then start descending to make a soft landing.
The soft landing of the Lander on the Lunar south pole is scheduled on August 23.
ISRO Chairman S Somanath had recently said the most critical part of the landing will be the process of reducing the velocity of the lander from 30km height to the final landing, and the ability to reorient the spacecraft from horizontal to vertical direction. "This is the trick we have to play here," he said.
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