Chandrayaan-3 landing : The minimum time taken to descend and decelerate from a height of about 30 km during the entire process is 17 minutes 21 seconds. If the lander had slid down slightly, the maximum time would have been 17 minutes 32 seconds.
The Chandrayaan-3 Landing Module (LM) will land on the lunar surface tonight. The whole world is waiting with bated breath for that historic moment. A lander consisting of a lander (Vikram) and a rover (Pragyan) will make a soft landing on the Moon’s South Pole at 6:04 p.m.
The last 17 minutes 21 seconds of this soft landing are the most important. They are also called 17 minutes of terror. In 2019, Chandrayaan-2 missed its target in the last moments and could not land safely on the Moon. However, learning from this, Chandrayaan-3 underwent extensive changes this time. After that, the thrusters begin to decelerate.
Explaining the significance of these 17 minutes, Center for Space Applications Director Nilesh M. Desai said that Vikram is about 30 km above the surface of the Moon, where it is moving at a speed of 1.68 km per second. Here the lander tries to land. The moon’s gravity pulls it towards itself. Buffer motors must be restarted to reduce speed. Four such thrusters are installed in the lander module.
According to Desai, the counter will come down from a height of 30 km to a height of 6.8 km. During this time, the speed is 350 metres per second, which means that it slows down four times. After that, the two engines are turned off. Then the lander comes down with only two engines. These two engines provide thrust to the lander.
The minimum time for the whole process is 17 minutes 21 seconds
Lett descends from a height of 6.8 km to a height of 800 metres. During this time, its speed is almost zero metres per second. This means that the lander will begin to fall freely. After that, it goes straight down to 150 metres, which is called vertical descent. After that, by comparing the input and reference images from other installed cameras and sensors, it is ensured that the rover can land straight down. If he feels that it is not favourable, he turns slightly to the right or left. The counter rises up to about 60 metres and then descends vertically.
This means that the minimum time required for the entire process to descend from a height of about 30 km and decelerate is 17 minutes 21 seconds. If the lander had slid down slightly, the maximum time would have been 17 minutes 32 seconds.
Desai explains that these 17 minutes are scary for us and are called 17 minutes of terror. There is a possibility of failure during this time. But this time we all planned by learning from failure.
What is Chandrayaan-3 anyway?
According to ISRO officials, the Chandrayaan-3 mission is the next phase of Chandrayaan-2, which will land on the lunar surface and conduct experiments. It looks similar to Chandrayaan-2, containing a lander and a rover. Chandrayaan-3 is focused on a safe landing on the lunar surface.
New devices were created for the success of the task. The algorithms have been improved. The reasons why the Chandrayaan-2 mission could not land on the surface of the Moon are concentrated.
The mission took off from the Sriharikota Center on July 14 at 2:35 pm and if all goes according to plan, it will land on the Moon today. This mission makes India the fourth country in the world after the US, Russia and China to achieve a soft landing on the Moon.
