What happens if Chandrayaan-3 faces difficulty and ‘unsuitable’ landing conditions?
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is set to land on the surface of the Moon on Wednesday evening. While ISRO officials insist that everything is on track for the record-setting descent onto the lunar south pole, officials have also broached the possibility of a delay. The space agency has indicated that touchdown could be postponed to August 27 in case the health parameters of the lander module are found to be “abnormal".
Experts however remain confident that the lander will find suitable conditions before it runs out of fuel. “The attempts made so far are successful as per the information received from ISRO. In case there comes any difficulty and the conditions are unsuitable, ISRO has kept enough fuel to sustain it for four more days.
It has been made technically strong...The high resolution camera installed in Vikram lander will monitor the surface for safe landing from a height of 25km initially...The expectations are that after finding a suitable space it lands timely," explained OP Gupta - a Senior Engineer with the Nehru Planetarium. “The mission is on schedule. Systems are undergoing regular checks.
Smooth sailing is continuing," ISRO had assured earlier in the day. With the spacecraft nearing its destination, ISRO will now focus on reducing the speed of the spacecraft above the lunar surface (in tandem with the moon's gravitational force). The lander will try to land on the Moon's surface from a height of 30km with a velocity of 1.68 km per second.
“If we do not control that speed, there will be chances of a crash landing. If any health parameter (of the lander module) is found abnormal on August 23, then we will postpone the landing to August 27," ISRO Space Applications Centre Director Nilesh Desa told PTI. (With
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