With the whole nation on the edge of their seats, eagerly waiting for the completion of the last phase of Chandrayaan-3, the Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover successfully landed at 6:04 p.m., Indian Standard Time (IST), on August 23, 2023, making India the first country to land on the dark side of the moon, or 'The South Pole, and the fourth country to successfully land a rover on the moon's surface. An article by The Social Talks covered the epic launch of Chandrayaan-3.
Launched on July 14, 2023, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, it served six weeks, traveling 380,000 km to the moon.
The event was streamed live on all social media platforms, including YouTube, Twitter, ISRO's website, Facebook, and television stations such as Doordarshan (DD).
Various pre-selections and up linking of parameters for the autonomous landing sequence had begun 48 hours before the scheduled landing. The descent sequence was divided into four phases: Rough Braking Phase, Altitude Hold Phase, Fine Braking Phase, and Local Navigation Phase or Terminal Descent Phase. The plan goes as follows:-
The Statesman provided a timeline summary of the schedule on August 23, 2023. The landing site near the Moon's South Pole had been designated, with the landing coordinates for the Chandrayaan-3 lander being 69.367621° S and 32.348126° E at 5:20 pm IST. Around 5:47 p.m., ISRO initiated a powered landing for Vikram Lander. The downsizing phase of the Landing Module (LM) of India's Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission has begun. ISRO reported that the lander accurately tracks its predicted path to the lunar surface. Two minutes later, ISRO assured that the Chandrayaan-3's Lander Module (LM) operated generally during the emergency braking phase. The speed of the LM gradually decreased as expected, according to the cosmic organization.
The Lander followed a descent pattern involving its horizontal velocity, vertical velocity, and altitude.
ISRO posted an image captured by Vikram's Landing Imager Camera with the caption, "It shows a portion of Chandrayaan-3's landing site. Seen also is a leg and its accompanying shadow. Chandrayaan-3 chose a relatively flat region on the lunar surface." And before this post, ISRO tweeted in another post, "The communication link is established between the Ch-3 Lander and MOX-ISTRAC, Bengaluru. Here are the images from the Lander Horizontal Velocity Camera taken during the descent. Both images are posted on 'X' (formerly Twitter).
After the successful landing, the ISRO scientists and officials were elated as they clapped, embraced, cheered, and congratulated each other. Not only within ISRO, but the whole nation celebrated its victory with flags waving amongst cheerful crowds, as sourced by Business Today.
"India is on the moon," ISRO Chairman Sreedhara Panicker Somnath said, congratulating ISRO. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually joined ISRO from Johannesburg, South Africa, on Wednesday and gave a powerful and encouraging speech to ISRO and India.
Former ISRO Chief K Sivan, Agendra Kumar, Managing Director, ESRI India, Rishi Ahuja, Founder, Klip VR Immersive Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Sanjay Gupta, Chairman of the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, INDUSLAW, Jamshyd Godrej, and others congratulated the successful landing, according to Financial Express.
Sourced from Telegraph India, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday congratulated India on the success of the Chandrayaan-3 moon landing, saying it was cause for all the BRICS partners to celebrate. He said: "A few hours ago, India made history as the first country to successfully land a lunar module on the moon’s south pole." We congratulate Prime Minister Modi, the government, and the people of India, as well as the Indian Space Research Organisation, for the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission."
In the Live Mint article, On August 24, 2023, the Pragyan Rover disembarked from the lander and began its trip to the moon. In one lunar day, which is 14 days, the rover is set to undertake experiments to understand the moon's hidden side. And over the lunar day, the moon drops into bone-chilling cold weather. Vikram and Pragyan rely on their functionality based on solar energy, and there is no return for either, hence this being a one-way journey.
On August 26, 2023, Shri Narendra Modi visited the ISRO facility in Bengaluru to congratulate scientists.
Has the moon been stored for the Pragyan Rover to find, and will it change India's course in space research?
Edited by Whitney Edna Ibe
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