ISRO ready to land on moon with Chandrayaan 3
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ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) has recently announced its second bid to land on Moon with Chandrayaan-3 by November 2020. ISRO shared the announcement on its social media handles.
It has formed multiple committees — an overall panel and three sub-committees — and held at least four high-level meetings since October. The new mission will include only a lander and rover, as the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is functioning well.
ISRO's recent mission of Chandrayaan 2 with its lander, rover and orbiter was upto 95% successful. The mission was designed to expand the lunar scientific knowledge leading to a new understanding of the origin and evolution of the Moon. On August 20, 2019, Chandrayaan-2 was successfully inserted into lunar orbit. While orbiting the moon in a 100 km lunar polar orbit, on September 02, 2019, Vikram Lander was separated from the Orbiter in preparation for landing. Subsequently, two de-orbit maneuvers were performed on Vikram Lander so as to change its orbit and begin circling the moon in a 100 km x 35 km orbit. Vikram Lander descent was as planned and normal performance was observed upto an altitude of 2.1 km. Subsequently communication from lander to the ground stations was lost.
