by Dr. Jaipal Singh
The chief functional objectives of various scientific payloads viz. the Lander Vikram and Rover Pragyan carried by the Chandrayaan-3 Lander on to the moon surface are enumerated below, the first five are assigned to the Lander and last two to the Rover:
1) The radio anatomy of the moon bound hypersensitive ionosphere and atmosphere (RAMBHA);
2) The measurement of the near surface plasma (ions and electrons) density and its changes with time, technically known as the Langmuir probe (LP);
3) The measurements of thermal properties of lunar surface near polar region, designated as Chandra's surface thermos-physical experiment (ChaSTE);
4) The measurement of the seismicity around the landing site and delineating the structure of the lunar crust and mantle i.e., instrument for lunar seismic activity (ILSA);
5) A passive experiment to understand the dynamics of the Moon system through the Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA);
6) To carry out the qualitative and quantitative elemental analysis (chemical composition) of the lunar surface through the Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS); and
7) To determine the elemental composition of the lunar soil and rocks around the lunar landing site through the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS).
In addition, the propulsion module payload (orbiter) is likely to assist in discovery of smaller planets in reflected light accelerating future probe into variety of Exo-planets from the prospective of the presence of life.
Significant & Landmark Events in Moon Landing
By the end of first week of July 2023, the ISRO had completed necessary tests, scheduled the launch of Chandrayaan-3 for the 14th July and extended open invitation to citizens to watch it from the Launch View Gallery at the SDSC, Sriharikota at the scheduled date and time.
During 11 to July 14, the launch rehearsal simulation exercise was carried out and the LVM3 (M4 version) vehicle successfully launched Chandrayaan-3 into the earth orbit commencing its voyage to the moon.
Between 15 to 25 July, the progress of the Chandrayaan-3 was constantly watched and five successive orbit-raising manoeuvres were successfully carried out on various dates, scheduling the trans-lunar injection for the 1st August 2023 after the fifth such manoeuvre on 25 July.
Through the successful manoeuvres and absolute precision, the Chandrayaan-3 was inserted in the translunar and lunar orbits on 1st and 5th August respectively. During the next three days, the spacecraft's orbit was reduced to 174 km (maximum distance) and 1437 km (orbit length) on 9 August. Then the spacecraft was put into an orbit of 153 km x 163 km through a successful firing and manoeuvre on 16 August 2023.
The milestone event on 17 August included successful separation of the Lander Vikram from the propulsion module. The spacecraft was put in the 25 x 134 km orbit on 20 August through precision manoeuvre, scheduling the powered descent and soft-landing process of the Lander to commence around 1745 Hrs IST on 23 August.
The spacecraft (Lander Vikram) successfully soft-landed on the moon surface on 23 August 2023 precisely at 1803 Hrs under in full view of the enthusiastic and keen eyes of the millions of Indians and other people across the world. The Lander immediately flashed the message back through the orbiter to the earth station “I reached my destination and you too!”
The Rover Pragyan, housed so far within the lander module, soon ramped down from the Lander in the early hours of 24 August 2023 taking a slow and measured walk on the moon.
Aftermath of Chandrayaan-3: Reactions & Responses
Some of the authentic technical data and information later received and released by the ISRO after the landing of the spacecraft on the moon surface include the Pragyan movement around the landing site (through ILSA), measured near surface plasma content (RAMBHA-LP on board), detection of some trace elements (courtesy APXS) and conclusive proof of the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface (courtesy LIBS). Apart from sulphur, traces of aluminium, calcium, iron, chromium and titanium have also been unveiled on the lunar surface. Later the ISRO also added that further measurements and analysis have suggested the presence of manganese, silicon and oxygen too while the investigation for the presence of hydrogen is underway.
Within the country, the jubilant media, countrymen and political ruling class witnessed the event and were all praise for the ISRO, scientific community and government for achieving this rare feat. However, among the opposition political parties, the leaders generally appreciated the achievement and ISRO scientists. Some Congress leaders simultaneously gave credit to the former Congress prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi for their vision and support to the space programme and one senior party leader Digvijay Singh even created a controversy with (unsubstantiated) allegations that the scientists involved in the Chandrayaan Mission were not paid their salaries for the last seventeen months.
On the other hand, a vast global support and appreciation has been received from the international community, including media, for this distinction and remarkable feat of scaling the so far unexplored side of the moon owing to its difficult conditions and terrain. Official response and felicitations from India's neighbour such as Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives were immediately received as also from some other fellow Asian countries India on its successful lunar mission and Chandrayaan-3 landing on the moon. However, the Chinese and Pakistani governments did not respond, and it was on 25 August that Pakistani foreign affairs spokesperson acknowledged the achievement.
The US Department of State, NASA and several distinguished Americans individually acknowledged ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 successful moon landing. The director general of the European Space Agency (ESA) described the spacecraft's soft landing as ‘incredible' achievement. Similar felicitations were received from the British High Commission and some members of the British Parliament. The Russian President personally congratulated the President and Prime Minister of India on the successful mission. The Kremlin website further added, “This is a big step forward in space exploration and, of course, a testament to India's impressive progress in science and technology…”
This section will remain incomplete if the reaction and coverage of the international media is not touched upon. The Western and Arab world media is generally known for their age long bias against India and its majority population comprising of Hindus. This bias has further grown after the government at Centre was formed under the nationalist leader Narendra Modi in 2014 and it is seldom that one would find an objective or unbiased reporting on India, Hindus and Mr. Modi from the mainstream media agencies like the New York Times, Washington Post, the Guardian, the BBC, Al Jazeera, and many more.
It was in 2014, when the ISRO achieved a rare feat of successfully inserting its first interplanetary mission orbiter, the Mangalyaan probe, into the orbit of Mars on 24 September and thus becoming only fourth space agency after the NASA, Roscosmos and ESA to accomplish this task, the New York Times viciously ridiculed India by publishing a cartoon on 28 September that showed rather a rustic farmer with a cow knocking at the door of a cabin marked the “Elite Space Club” with two elites reading a newspaper on India's success. Of course, the NYT had routinely expressed regret later on for this outlandish approach smelling the racial bias.
Now almost nine years later, the recent achievement of India's Chandrayaan-3 mission has received a different coverage and treatment from the global media. The majority of media houses have lauded India and ISRO for achieving the rare feat of successfully spacecraft landing on the south pole region of the moon. The NYT's headline this time read, “In Latest Moon Race, India Lands First in Southern Polar Region”; then the story also inter alia described that the Indian people take great pride in the nation's accomplishments of the space programme that orbited the Moon and Mars and routinely launched satellites above the earth with far fewer financial resources than other nations. It further added that the achievement of the Chandrayaan-3 would be far sweeter.
Similarly, during the recent years on more important issues like Ram Janmbhumi dispute, Article 370 on Kashmir, anti-CAA protests, Delhi riots of 2020, Farmers' agitation or even Covid-19 outbreak, Western media such as the BBC, Washington Post, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, etc., have frequently resorted to a lopsided, and often misleading, reporting but, to utter surprise or may be for a change, a reasonably fair and more objective reporting has been done in this case. For instance, the BBC headline covering the feat of Chandrayaan-3 carried the headline, “India makes history as Chandrayaan-3 lands near Moon's South Pole”. In the main texts also, it sounds better…This is a massive moment for India – and it bumps them up the space superpower list, citing the Russia's currently failed attempt to justify how arduous is the task.
The Washington Post headline read, “India lands a spacecraft softly on the moon's surface”, then the story narrated how the successful soft-landing of the Chandrayaan-3 mission was a great triumph for the country with growing ambitions in the space and how the success was celebrated by the nation comprising of over one billion people. The UK based daily the Guardian wrote under the headline, “India lands spacecraft near the south pole of moon in historic first”. The story inside referred to India's emergence as a space power and the government's stress on investment in private spaces launches and related satellite based commercial activities. Qatar based and state-owned Arabic-language international news network, Al Jazeera as the major representative of the Arab world is so often critical of India, its government and majority Hindu community. However, on the Chandrayaan-3's moon landing, it's headline read, “India moon landing live news: Chandrayaan-3 makes space history”, and further added that India successfully landed the spacecraft near the moon's south pole, making it the first country to do so.
End Note
Needless to mention, the Indian pursuit of the space exploration by its dedicated agency ISRO has indeed achieved a remarkable milestone after the successful execution of the Chandrayaan-3 Mission having reached and soft-landed on the lunar surface of its south pole region, which is considered to be a tough task so far not achieved by any of the other successful countries of the so-called elite space club. This attainment has marked a noteworthy step towards the contributions of the Indian science, technology, engineering and industry in the national build up in terms of its development and progress at the beginning of the current millennium. Let there be no doubt that the success of the Indian moon mission will trigger global interest too in lunar exploration and take the space mission to even more higher-level consolidating India's overall position in the world. The ISRO is likely to undertake more ambitious moon and inter-planetary missions in the future, one such mission to the sun is already scheduled on 2nd September 2023.
Apart from the scientific and technological significance of the Chandrayaan-3 feat, such successes and achievements at the national level also help to generate and inculcate a collective sense of pride and oneness among the countrymen, besides inculcating a general awareness and keenness to build an ecology with scientific temperament and innovation. Here the author would also like to record the significant contrast in the priority and approach of the previous Congress governments and the present government under the dynamic leadership of Mr. Narendra Modi. During the earlier Congress government, the point where the MIP hit on the moon surface was named as the Jawahar Point after the name of former Congress Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru while the subsequent both landing sites viz. where the lander of Chandrayaan-2 was scheduled to touch down and where the lander of Chandrayaan-3 actually soft-landed, have been named as ‘Tiranga' and ‘Shiv Shakti' respectively. The first one is of national significance while the second symbolizes collective strength of women contributing to the mission.
concluded……Boloji.com
Note: ISRO website has been consulted for data and information
