Chandrayaan-3 will be launched today: its budget is less than Adipurush movie, after 48 days the lander will land on the Moon’s South Pole

India will launch Chandrayaan-3 mission today, 3 years, 11 months and 23 days after the launch of Chandrayaan-2. It will be sent into space through an LVM3-M4 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh at 2.35 pm. With this mission, India wants to show its space power to the world. If the mission is successful, India will become the fourth country after America, Russia and China to do so.

Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has three lander/rover and propulsion modules. After 45 to 48 days i.e. on 23 or 24 August, the lander and rover will land on the Moon’s South Pole. Both of them will experiment on the moon for 14 days, while the propulsion module will study the radiations coming from the earth by staying in the orbit of the moon. Through the mission, ISRO will find out how seismic the lunar surface is, soil and dust will be studied.

Chandrayaan-3 cheaper than the budget of Adipurush film
The budget of Chandrayaan-3 is around Rs 615 crores while the cost of the recent film Adipurush was Rs 700 crores. Means Chandrayaan-3 is about 85 crore rupees cheaper than the cost of this movie. The cost of Chandrayaan 2 sent 4 years before this was also Rs 603 crores. However, Rs 375 crore was spent on its launch as well.

Launching will be able to watch live online and on TV
The launch of Chandrayaan-3 will be shown live on ISRO’s official website and YouTube channel. You can also watch Chandrayaan-3 launch live on Doordarshan. For those who want to watch the launch live from the launch view gallery at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, the space agency had started registration at ivg.shar.gov.in/. Now the registration is closed.

Now answers to 4 important questions related to Chandrayaan mission…

1. What will India gain from this mission?
Manish Purohit, ex-scientist of ISRO, says that through this mission, India wants to tell the world that it has the ability to do a soft landing on the moon and run the rover there. This will increase the world’s trust in India which will help in increasing commercial business. India will launch Chandrayaan from its Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle LVM3-M4. India has already shown the capability of this vehicle to the world.

In the past, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ company ‘Blue Origin’ had shown its interest in using ISRO’s LVM3 rocket. Blue Origin wants to use LVM3 for commercial and tourism purposes. Through LVM3, Blue Origin will take its crew capsule to the planned Low Earth Orbit (LEO) space station.

2. Why is the mission being sent to the South Pole only?
The polar regions of the Moon are quite different from other regions. There are many parts here where the sunlight never reaches and the temperature falls below -200 degree Celsius. In such a situation, scientists estimate that there may still be water present in the form of ice. India’s 2008 Chandrayaan-1 mission indicated the presence of water on the Moon’s surface.

The landing site of this mission is the same as that of Chandrayaan-2. Near the South Pole of the Moon at 70 degree latitude. If all goes well, Chandrayaan-3 will become the world’s first spacecraft to soft-land near the Moon’s south pole. All previous spacecraft to land on the Moon have landed in the equatorial region, a few degrees of latitude north or south of the lunar equator.

3. Why 4 engines instead of 5 in the lander this time?
This time the lander will have four engines (thrusters) on the four corners, but last time the fifth engine in the middle has been removed. Apart from this, the final landing will be done with the help of two engines only, so that two engines can work in emergency. The fifth engine was added at the last moment in the Chandrayaan 2 mission. The engine has been removed so that more fuel can be carried along.

4. Why will the mission be for 14 days only?
Manish Purohit told that there is night for 14 days and light for 14 days on the moon. When it is night here, the temperature drops below -200 degree Celsius. Chandrayaan’s lander and rover will generate power from their solar panels. That’s why they will generate power for 14 days but at nightfall the power generation process will stop. If there is no power generation, the electronics will not be able to withstand the severe cold and will get damaged.