Chandrayaan-3’s Lander Camera Captures New Pictures of the Moon From 70km Altitude: See Here

Ahead of Chandrayaan-3’s long-awaited soft landing, ISRO has released more photos of the Moon taken by cameras mounted on the Vikram lander module. Meanwhile, ISRO said in its latest update on Chandrayaan-3’s soft landing that the mission is proceeding as planned and systems are undergoing regular checks.

“Smooth sailing continues, Mission Operations Complex (ISRO) full of energy and excitement!” ISRO posted on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Following the failure of Russia’s Luna-25 mission, all eyes will be on India as its Chandrayaan-3 lands on the moon on Wednesday, August 23, 2023 (around 18:04 UTC).

A televised live broadcast of the landing operation will begin at 5:20 p.m. CST on Wednesday. The live broadcast of the landing will be broadcast on ISRO’s website, its YouTube channel, Facebook and public broadcaster DD National TV on 23 August 2023 at 5:27 pm (Indian Standard Time).

Along with the mission update, ISRO also released images of the Moon taken by the Lander’s Position Detection Camera (LPDC) from an altitude of about 70 kilometers.

These images help the lander module determine its position (latitude and longitude) by matching it to an onboard lunar reference map.

On Monday, ISRO released a series of images of regions on the far side of the Moon captured by the Lander Hazard Detection and Avoidance Camera (LHDAC). This camera helps to find a safe landing area (no boulders or deep trenches) during the descent. Also, in a major development, the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, still in orbit around the moon, established a two-way connection with the Chandrayaan-3 lander on Monday.

Notably, the spacecraft’s Vikram lander module successfully separated from its propulsion module on Thursday, following a critical deboost maneuver and descent to a slightly lower orbit. The lander for the Chandrayaan-3 mission is named after Vikram Sarabhai (1919-1971), who is widely considered the father of the Indian space program.

A GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift vehicle was used to launch the spacecraft, which entered lunar orbit on August 5 and has since descended closer to the lunar surface through a series of orbital maneuvers.

It has been one month and eight days since ISRO launched the Chandrayaan-3 mission on July 14. The spacecraft was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

The stated goals of Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar exploration mission, are safe soft landings on the lunar surface, movement of lunar rovers on the lunar surface and on-site scientific experiments.

India will become the fourth country in the world to achieve the feat after the United States, Russia and China, but India will be the only country in the world to land on the South Pole of the Moon.