Chandrayaan-3 aims to make a gentle landing on the moon on August 23. Russia’s Luna 25 mission is scheduled to arrive at the same time, but the spacecraft already has several ongoing missions underway.
Take a look at the Russian adversary of Chandrayaan-3, which is expected to launch on Friday and potentially reach the Moon sooner.
A summary of current lunar exploration endeavors:
ISRO has confirmed that six lunar orbiters are still in service as of July 2023.
The Artemis initiative has repurposed the two probes from NASA’s THEMIS mission, known as Artmes P1 and Artis P2, to maintain eccentric orbits and low inclination.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) of NASA follows a roughly elliptical trajectory around the moon in its near-polar orbit.
The Chandrayaan-2 and KPLO are both polar orbit satellites that can be used to explore space, with their orbits aloft of 100 km.
The Capstone rocket from NASA follows a southern L2 NRHO trajectory with resonant frequencies of 9:2, flying over the lunar North pole, which is between 1500-1600 km and the South Pole, located approximately 70,000 km away.
The spacecraft Ouna, which was launched in 2009 from Japan’s Kaguya/SELENE mission and India’ launching Chandrayaan-1 in 2008, is now decommissioned.
The remaining orbiters have either been relocated from the moon-bound orbit or have impacted the lunar surface, either intentionally or due to failed soft landings. China’s Queqiao, a data relay satellite for Chang’e 4, was launched in 2018 and shifted to halo orbit near the Earth-Moon L2 point.
Landing on the moon
Chang’e 4 has sent China’s Yutu-2 rover to explore the far side of the moon, which is currently the only operational rover on the lunar surface.
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Are there still potential hazards associated with collisions in a large number of missions?
ISRO reports that there are multiple spacecraft in the Moon’s orbit, which can overlap due to their overlapping paths. This can lead to potential collisions and preventive maneuvers designed to avoid uncertainty. Chandrayaan-2 has made three collision avoidance moves to prevent close encounters with LRO and KPLO.
To avoid critical conjunctions in the Lunar orbit, coordination is being maintained among the agencies. According to ISRO’s statement, the Chandryaan-3 mission will be a circular LLO of 150 km altitude for many years to come.
What is the current situation with the Chandrayaan-3 tracker and the Indian moon mission?
The orbit of Chandrayaan-3 has been reduced to 174 km x 1437 km as it approaches the moon’s surface.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced that the next mission will take place on August 14, 2023, between 11:30 and 12:30 Hrs. IST.