🗓️ Thursday, 13 July
1.18 pm: Countdown commences
The countdown to the Chandrayaan-3 launch has begun.
The precise time of launch tomorrow is 14:35:17 IST. The livestream proceedings will begin earlier, at 2 pm, on ISRO's YouTube channel.
Along with this update, ISRO tweeted the link to the Chandrayaan-3 curtain-raiser video, which we shared with you in an update earlier today.
11.53 am: Prayers offered at Tirupati temple
With the Chandrayaan-3 launch a day away, a team of ISRO scientists offered prayers at the Tirupati temple early morning today.
The scientists also carried with them a miniature model of Chandrayaan-3.
ISRO Scientific Secretary Shantanu Bhatawdekar was among the scientists who visited the Tirupati Venkatachalapathy Temple in Andhra Pradesh.
Besides, have you seen ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 curtain raiser video? The points covered in the video:
– Importance of studying the Moon
– A review of the Chandrayaan programme and its achievements
– From Earth to Moon, the journey that Chandrayaan-3 will undertake
– The importance of the landing site
– Scientific instruments on Chandrayaan-3 and their purpose
🗓️ Wednesday, 12 July
7.41 pm: Countdown just a day away
The mission readiness review was completed today, ISRO confirmed.
"The board has authorised the launch," the space agency said in a tweet.
The countdown begins tomorrow; that is, Thursday.
Save the link to watch the launch live on 14 July. Proceedings begin at 2 pm, with the launch slated for 2.35 pm.
🗓️ Tuesday, 11 July
4.14 pm: Launch rehearsal done
ISRO has reported concluding the Chandrayaan-3 launch rehearsal.
The space agency simulated the entire launch preparation and process taking all of 24 hours.
As they say, practice makes perfect.
🗓️ Monday, 10 July
7.10 pm: 'Failure-based design in Chandrayaan-3'
Speaking on the sidelines of India Space Congress 2023 earlier today, here's what ISRO Chairman S Somanath said about what went wrong with Chandrayaan-2 and how it's rectified now in the third mission:
"We were trying to target a landing in a particular spot, closer to the South Pole, that is 70 degrees to the South Pole, and in doing so, we faced certain challenges."
The five engines responsible for the retardation, or reduction of the velocity, of the Chandrayaan-2 lander "developed a little higher thrust than that was expected," Somanath said.
This was coupled with the lander's desperation to land at its designated spot even when it was still far away, thereby increasing its velocity, which was already very high, even if still within the specifications.
"So, there was a contradictory requirement of reaching to the exact spot and, at the same time, achieve a low velocity. It became mathematically difficult for it to do it in the available time. So, finally, when it actually did it, it was (sic) fell short of almost half a kilometre and the velocity of touch was higher," the ISRO chief said.
As to what needed to be rectified in Chandrayaan-3, Somanath said, "We found that... we must give more flexibility to the craft to handle dispersions, essentially."
"So, instead of success-based design in Chandrayaan-2, we are doing a failure-based design in Chandrayaan-3. What all can fail, and how to protect it — this is the approach that we have taken...," he said.
As for a concrete change, ISRO has expanded the area of landing for the Chandrayaan-3 lander, from 0.5 km x 0.5 km in Chandrayaan-2 to 4 km x 2.5 km in the next instalment.
Read More at https://swarajyamag.com/science/sciencechandrayaan-3-dashboard
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