Chandrayaan-3 launching in June 2023, confirms ISRO chairman in its latest update
After a depressing first attempt to land a rover on the Moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation, or ISRO is readying its second attempt to land a lunar rover on the surface. The mission will be called Chandrayaan-3 and is expected to launch in June 2023, if everything goes according to plan. Chandrayaan-3 will be a copy of the Chandrayaan-2 mission, but ISRO has made big technological changes to ensure it doesn't suffer the same fate as before.
“Chandrayaan-3 (C-3) launch will be in June next year onboard the Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3)," said ISRO chairman S Somnath in an interaction with the PTI. “C-3 is ready now. It is not a replica of C-2. The rover is there. The engineering is significantly different. We have made it more robust so that it does not have problems like last time," Somnath added.
ISRO has now added a lot of failsafes after witnessing the failure of the Vikram lander back in 2019. “There are many changes. The impact legs are stronger. It will have better instrumentation. In case something fails, something else will take over," said the ISRO chairman. He also added that the rover will can calculate the height to be travelled, identify hazard-free locations and have better software.
Hence, if the lander faces the similar issues it faced last time, it should have a better chance at saving itself. Chandrayaan-3 will also be a precursor to the Gaganyaan missions that aim to put Indian astronauts in space.
Gaganyaan will see six test flights before it gets a green signal to carry Indian astronauts to the space. ISRO expects to send Indian astronauts to space by the end of 2024, and it all depends on how the six test missions perform. The first two missions will be abort missions to test all safety systems,
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