Russia was all set to make history with its Luna-25 mission. However, now that Luna-25 has crashed into the moon, India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission’s lander module is the lone contender in the race to make a soft touch down on the south pole of the lunar surface.
Russia’s space agency had revealed that their spacecraft took an unexpected turn and spiraled out of control before it crashed hard onto the moon’s surface, thereby failing its objectives.
A few years ago, ISRO was in a similar position with the Chandrayaan-2 mission.
Even though we’ve seen successful moon landings more than 20 times before, the process continues to be a massive challenge. In recent history, only China has pulled off three solid touchdowns. Most successful landings on the moon happened in the 1960s and 1970s, when we weren’t aiming for the lunar poles.
Now that Luna’s attempt has crashed, we’ve got the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s lander module leading the lunar touchdown race. And while there is always a chance that things may go wrong, the folks at ISRO have a genius plan to make sure this time the Vikram lander sticks its landing, no matter what curveballs come its way.
A few days ago, the chairman of ISRO, S Somanath, revealed the steps they had taken this time to ensure the Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander doesn’t mess up, even if its sensors and engines go awry.
“The entire design of the lander has been made in a manner that makes sure that it would be able to handle failures,” the ISRO chief said. “If everything fails, if all the sensors fail, nothing works, it (Vikram) still will make a soft landing. That’s how it has been designed – provided that the propulsion system works well,” Somanath said.
In several of our reports, we have discussed that pivotal moment when Vikram goes from a horizontal position to a vertical one as it begins its final descent. That transition is a make-or-break for the entire mission.
The plan is to begin deboosting rapidly as it reaches the surface. At a certain point, the lander will separate from the lander propulsion module, but this has to be done at a critical point – do it too early, and the lander module may get imbalanced and tilt over. Do it too late, and it may not slow down enough for a soft touch down and may slam onto the moon, damaging some of the more delicate components.
