Saturday completed 22 days in Chandrayaan-3’s 40-day lunar journey since its launch onboard the LVM-3 on July 14 and the spacecraft’s health, being continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at the Isro Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (Istrac) in Bengaluru with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennas at Byalalu, near Bengaluru, is normal.
The successful lunar orbit insertion (LOI) marked a key milestone for the spacecraft, which completed 22 days of its 40-day lunar journey since it was launched on July 14.
However, the next 17 days will be crucial for Isro before it attempts to soft-land Vikram (the lander). After the LOI, Isro will make minor adjustments to ensure the right inclination of the spacecraft even as its altitude is reduced using four lunar-bound manoeuvres before the landing module comprising Vikram and Pragyan (the rover) breaks away from the propulsion module on August 17.
With all manoeuvres so far having gone as per plan, Isro is still aiming for an August 23 Moon landing. Chandrayaan-3, in comparison to Chandrayaan-2 has been designed with the capabilities to autonomously handle a wide range of dispersion in order to achieve a soft and safe landing.
The major scientific experiments planned once the Lander successfully lands on Moon include studying the vibrations on the lunar surface due to seismic events, and/or due to the impact of meteorites, rover movement; near–surface plasma environment; temperature and thermal conductivity up to the depth of 10cm; elemental composition in and around the landing site and spectral signatures of Earth from the lunar orbit.