India took a significant step forward in its third moon mission by successfully mating the encapsulated assembly containing the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, announced the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday. The assembly, consisting of the spacecraft, was integrated with the LVM3 rocket at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
The LVM3 rocket, India's heaviest, will transport the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, which includes a lander named Vikram and a rover named Pragyan. After reaching the designated orbit, the spacecraft will embark on its approximately 384,000 km journey towards the moon.
The total weight of the spacecraft is 3,900 kg, slightly lower than the carrying capacity of the LVM3 rocket. The orbiter or propulsion module weighs 2,148 kg, while the lander weighs 1,752 kg, including the rover.
The tentative launch date for India's moon mission is July 13, within a launch window open from July 12 to July 19. However, the exact date is yet to be finalized, according to an anonymous ISRO official.
The primary objective of Chandrayaan-3 is to achieve a safe landing of the lander on the lunar surface, followed by the rover conducting experiments. Some modifications have been made to the lander, including reducing the number of motors from five to four, as well as software updates.
The propulsion module of the spacecraft contains the Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload, which will study spectral and polarimetric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit. The lander payloads include the Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure thermal conductivity and temperature, the Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) to monitor seismicity around the landing site, and the Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate plasma density and variations.
In addition, a passive Laser Retroreflector Array provided by NASA will facilitate lunar laser ranging studies. The rover will carry an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and a Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) to analyze the elemental composition near the landing site, as stated by ISRO.