essay on the success story of moon mission of india

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Chandrayaan-3’s moon landing: a remarkable achievement that showcases india’s spirit, capabilities and resilience.

In a historic moment that drew cheers from the millions of watchers of its live telecast around the country, India on 23 August became the first nation to successfully land a spacecraft near the south pole of the Moon. Tom Acres, technology reporter of Sky News , described the event as a landmark achievement for not just India’s space programme, but also humanity’s efforts to explore the cosmos. Even though the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States (US) did successfully put humans on the Moon during the Apollo Programme more than 50 years ago, the touchdown of India’s robotic spacecraft nevertheless marks a massive achievement and pays tribute to the economic, scientific and technological progress that India has made in the just 75 years since it was left a broken, drained, impoverished and struggling nation by its colonial British rulers. The landing also demonstrated India’s continued perseverance and tenacity in achieving difficult missions. Such was the scale of the feat in the eyes of most South Asians that even the Pakistani daily Dawn commented on how Chandrayaan-3 had captivated public attention since its launch nearly six weeks ago, and noted that “India is steadily matching the achievements of established spacefaring nations” .

Chandrayaan-3 (Moon craft-3) launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota Range in southern India on 14 July on a mission to demonstrate new technologies and achieve India’s first soft landing on another celestial body. The spacecraft arrived in lunar orbit on 5 August, and on 17 August the lander module separated from the propulsion module and soon began its descent to the surface of the Moon. On 23 August, after a nail-biting wait, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) confirmed that Chandrayaan-3’s lander had successfully touched down on the Moon’s southern polar region, as planned. Chandrayaan-3 took much longer to reach the Moon than the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s as India used rockets that were much less powerful than the US did back then. Instead, Chandrayaan-3 orbited the Earth several times to gain speed before embarking on its month-long lunar trajectory. Mission control erupted in celebration as it was announced that the lander module had landed “safely and softly” .

More celebrations followed when Pragyan — Wisdom in Sanskrit — rolled out of the lander on 24 August. During its mission on the surface of the Moon, which will last for one lunar day (14 days on Earth), the rover will carry out a number of scientific experiments. It will gather rock samples, images, and data, and will run a series of experiments to determine the mineral composition of the lunar surface. The six-wheeled lander and rover module of Chandrayaan-3 is configured with payloads that will provide data to the scientific community on the properties of lunar soil and rocks, including chemical and elemental compositions.

Only three nations – the US, China, and the erstwhile Soviet Union (USSR) – have ever touched down on the Moon, but no country had thus far successfully made it to the south pole. As Tom Acres pointed out, the south pole is a long way from the region of the Moon targeted by most previous missions, including the crewed Apollo landings. The south pole has very rough terrain, with deep trenches and plenty of craters, making landing on it a challenging task. T.V. Padma, writing in the Nature journal, explained the testing conditions Chandrayaan-3 overcame by recalling that India’s 2019 Chandrayaan-2 mission had succeeded in launching an orbiter with eight functioning instruments, but the lander carrying the Moon rover crashed into the lunar surface in the final moments of landing. She wrote, “ISRO learnt from that failure and made several design changes to the lander-rover portion of the mission. These include a new laser sensor to measure the real-time velocity of the spacecraft relative to the Moon, algorithms to handle unanticipated deviations in propulsion or trajectory and better judge the landing terrain, bigger and more solar panels, more fuel, a heavier lander equipped with four sturdier legs to handle a faster landing velocity. The craft also targeted a larger landing area that was 4 kilometres by 2.4 kilometres, compared with a 0.5 km by 0.5 km region for the previous mission” .

Marc Norman, planetary geochemist at the Australian National University in Canberra, underlined that landing at the Moon’s south pole is difficult because it involves positioning the spacecraft at a different angle from previous landings. In particular, it requires putting the spacecraft into a polar orbit that is at right angles to the Moon’s orbit. Norman said, “This requires additional energy to move the spacecraft into an ‘unnatural’ orbit, which introduces uncertainties on critical aspects such as velocity and location of the spacecraft” . He added that lack of detailed data on the region’s gravity and surface characteristics compounded the problem. He elaborated by saying that “For example, if the spacecraft lands in a crater, on a slope, or the leg of the lander catches on a boulder, the mission could be compromised” .

Geologist Saumitra Mukherjee of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, whose team analysed images sent by India’s first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 in 2008, pointed out that Moon quakes in the landing area added to the complexity. Torin Clark, an aerospace engineer at University of Colorado Boulder, believes that poor lighting from the Sun was another challenge. He said, “Some areas are completely in the dark, others are in the light, but with extreme sun angles, essentially blocking out any terrain features. This is in contrast to the Apollo landings, where the landing sites and timing were specifically chosen to ensure quality lighting of the lunar terrain” .

The importance of landing at the Moon’s south pole lies in the fact that it is believed that the pole’s shadowed craters contain water ice that could support a future base on the Moon, allowing astronauts and scientists to work there for extended periods. Space agencies, including NASA, have detected frozen water in the south pole craters before, but no country had ever actually ventured into the region. If water ice is really there, it could be used for fuel, oxygen, and drinking water, and provide insight into past lunar volcanoes and the origins of our own oceans. Dr. Ian Whittaker, a space physics expert at Nottingham Trent University, said: “The successful landing means the rover and station should provide us with a more accurate determination of lunar crust composition. Particularly around the lunar south pole which is a suggested location for a lunar base due to the ability to have constant sunlight for power. The instruments onboard the rover will be useful for if we want to build structures out of local material” . ISRO said that “the lunar south pole is of special interest because parts of it remain permanently in shadow, raising the possibility of sampling Moon ice for the first time. Moreover, the large craters near the lunar south pole might contain clues to the composition of the early Solar System” .

The successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 sparked huge celebrations across India. Reactions to achievement were buoyant. Sreedhara Panicker Somanath, chairman of ISRO, announced it by exclaiming, “We have achieved soft landing on the Moon. India is on the Moon” . Somnath later told a press briefing that India would next attempt a manned lunar mission, and that the landing “gives confidence to configure missions to go to the Moon, Mars, Venus, maybe even asteroids” . Chandrayaan-3’s success comes about a week before ISRO’s next major mission — its first to study the Sun — which is scheduled to launch in the first week of September.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking by video link from South Africa where he is attending a BRICS summit, said that India was entering a historically auspicious moment. Modi said, “My dear family, when we see history being made in front of us, it makes our life blessed. This moment is the announcement of an advanced India. These moments are of invention and phenomenal growth. … We had taken a pledge on Earth and realized it on the Moon. This success belongs to all of humanity and it will help more missions by other countries in the future” .

India’s opposition parties joined the celebrations and extended congratulations. The President of India’s Congress Party and leader of the opposition Mallikarjun Kharge said that the success of Chandrayaan-3 was the “collective success of every Indian” . Kharge added, “We are deeply indebted to the remarkable hard work, unparalleled ingenuity and unflinching dedication of our scientists, space engineers, researchers and everyone involved in making this mission a triumph for India. Today, through the Chandrayaan-3, we have displayed our scientific prowess to the world” .

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi sought to bring in a historical perspective when he wrote on social media that “Chandrayaan-3’s soft landing on the uncharted lunar South Pole is the result of decades of tremendous ingenuity and hard work by our scientific community. Since 1962, India’s space programme has continued to scale new heights and inspire generations of young dreamers” .

As Canada-based writer and journalist Anusuya Datta noted in spacenews.com , “ISRO’s history is characterized by resilience, innovation, and collaboration. Established in 1969, ISRO has maintained a robust remote sensing program since 1988, offering valuable Earth Observation data in various spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions through a range of instruments. Many do not know that its PAN cameras (aboard IRS-1C) were the highest-resolution civilian cameras in the world until the launch of U.S.-based DigitalGlobe’s Ikonos satellite in 1999. ISRO’s technological prowess garnered global attention in 2013 with the success of the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also known as Mangalyaan. ISRO has launched 124 of its own spacecraft, including three to the Moon and one to Mars; and has facilitated the launch of 424 satellites from other countries. Its old workhorse PSLV is a prime choice for rideshare services, notable for deploying 104 satellites in a single launch in 2017, a world record until SpaceX’s Transporter-1 mission surpassed it in 2021. In 2018, ISRO completed its own navigation system, NavIC, positioning itself among the elite club of nations (U.S., Russia, China, the European Union, and partly Japan) with this capability. The Chandrayaan missions only signify the continuation of this legacy” .

International reactions were equally upbeat and encouraging. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated ISRO on the landing and said, “And congratulations to India on being the 4th country to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon. We’re glad to be your partner on this mission!” The US Department of State’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs said that Chandrayaan-3 success would “power” the future. It said on social media, “Your success will power the imagination and light the future of people around the world” . India has aligned itself with the US by signing an agreement on space exploration known as the Artemis Accords, a legal framework that governs activity in space. So far, nearly 30 countries have signed, allowing them to partner with the US on space missions and mandating that they adhere to a set of rules, such as publicly sharing scientific discoveries and creating “safety zones” where nations could work undisturbed on the lunar surface.

The director general of the European Space Agency (ESA), Josef Aschbacher, called the landing of Chandrayaan-3 an “incredible” event. “What a way to demonstrate new technologies and achieve India’s first soft landing on another celestial body” , he said, adding “Well done. I am thoroughly impressed” . Rolf Densing, Director of Operations at ESA’s operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany said, “Congratulations ISRO on this historic landing. ESA is proud to support the Chandrayaan-3 mission. Our ground stations are a core element of ESA’s support to its international partners, and I am pleased that with this activity, we are further strengthening ESA’s relationship with ISRO and with India. I look forward to supporting further pioneering ISRO missions, such as Aditya-L1, in the future” . ESA is providing deep space communication support to the Chandrayaan-3 mission.

Russia’s space agency Roskosmos joined in to hail India for the Moon landing. It said in a post on its Telegram channel: “Roskosmos congratulates Indian colleagues on the successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft. Exploration of the Moon is important for all mankind. In the future it may become a platform for deep space exploration” .

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa was among several international leaders who congratulated India on the historic Moon landing. “This for us, as the BRICS family, is a momentous occasion and we rejoice with you. We join you in the joy of this great achievement” , he said. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his “heartfelt congratulations” to India for an “impressive” achievement. He said that “This is a big step forward in space exploration and, of course, a testament to the impressive progress made by India in the field of science and technology” . Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said, “India continues to make history” .

The implications of India’s impressive achievement with Chandrayaan-3 are wide. Dr. Ian Whittaker described it thus: “It is amazing to see that India have managed a soft lunar landing on only their second attempt. It indicates great things for future missions in the Chandrayaan series, and means they become a bigger player on cooperative missions in the future. Indian schoolchildren will have all watched the landing in schools. It is really seeing science in action and will inspire a new generation of space scientists and researchers” .

Former NASA official Mike Gold, who is currently the Chief Growth Officer of Redwire Space, believes that Chandrayaan-3’s success is a victory of Indian innovation, human capital and the capabilities that will take India further. He noted that what made the success of Chandrayaan-3 amazing was the “relatively little amount of resources that India has used” . Gold went on to say that “This mission will gather invaluable data to help drive our understanding of the Moon, our ability to utilise resources and ultimately where we’re going to establish settlements on the Moon” .  

Anusuya Datta feels that Chandrayaan-3’s success holds potential significance for India’s aspirations of establishing a sustained human presence on the Moon. Under the Artemis Accords, ISRO can lay claim to the landing area for mining rights. Further, a successful Chandrayaan-3 mission will catalyze innovative scientific research, facilitating groundbreaking experiments that contribute to lunar understanding, including its composition, geology, and resource potential. She opined that at the heart of India’s space journey lay a pivotal lesson in self-reliance. ISRO serves as a living testament to the remarkable potential of Indian scientists in conquering challenges. Despite bureaucratic entanglements, political intricacies, and limited resources, ISRO has shattered stereotypes, emerging as a worthy rival to the elite space club.

Kavya Karampuri, a mission systems engineer at Bengaluru-based KaleidEO that specializes in Earth-observation-based space data analytics, is of the view that India’s success will instill confidence in the technological competence of India’s space industry. It would attract global investments in the Indian private space sector, foster international collaboration, and innovation across universities, laboratories, start-ups, and research communities in India.

India’s achievement on the Moon comes at a time when its stock on earth is also rising rapidly. Nuclear-armed India became the world’s fifth-largest economy last year, and as The Guardian noted, Modi’s nationalist government is eager to showcase the country’s rising standing as a technology and space powerhouse. It added, “A successful Moon mission dovetails with Modi’s image of an ascendant India asserting its place among the global elite and would help bolster his popularity ahead of a crucial general election next year” .

The real significance of India’s lunar achievement lies in the fact that when Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon in July 1969, poverty-stricken India was struggling with the consequences of a cruel and exploitative colonial past and ISRO had not even been established; yet, just 50-odd years later, the indomitable spirit, the resilience, and the quest for scientific knowledge and technological prowess of the Indian people has got them where very few have dared venture – as far away as the Moon.  

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Chandrayaan 3 Essay in English for School Students

Essay on chandrayaan 3 for school students: check here 100, 200 words essay on india's latest moon mission chandrayaan 3. students can also use this as a short speech for school assemblies or speech competitions. they, can also check the latest chandrayaan 3 updates to easily edit elements and elongate their essay as per their requirement..

Chandrayaan 3 Essay and Short Speech in English for School Students: Chandrayaan 3 was a gigantic success for India and now its Pragyaan rover has gone to sleep. To commemorate Chandrayaan 3 triumph and the soft landing of Vikram lander on the moon, National Space Day will be celebrated on August 23 every year as announced by PM Modi. Every Indian is proud of the soft landing of Chandrayaan 3 on the moon! In the latest update by ISRO, the propulsion module of Chandrayaan 3 has been brought back into the Earth's orbit.

As per ISRO's other update, t he Rover had completed its assignments and was parked and set into Sleep mode. The Chandrayaan 3 Rover Pragyaan had ramped down from the Lander a while after its landing on August 23rd. Pragyan rover was continuously walking on the moon and sending various details to the ISRO centre.

Related:  Chandrayaan 3: Will Pragyan Rover Wake Up Again? ALL You Need To Know 

In the vast space of our universe, where mythology and science come together so often, Chandrayaan-3 shines brightly as a symbol of India’s astral hope and exploration. It shows India's strong determination to uncover the moon's mysteries. With careful planning and robust designs, Chandrayaan-3 has gotten us closer to landing on the moon and discovering its hidden secrets. In this article, we have provided an essay on Chandrayaan in about 100 and 200 words. Students can easily refer to this essay and come up with their own modifications and tweaks in the essay body. 

Chandrayaan 3 Essay in English

Chandrayaan-3: india's latest lunar mission, chandrayaan 3 details, latest updates and information about chandrayaan 3.

• January 22, 2024

NASA Spacecraft Pings India’s Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon:

• September 22, 2023

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Efforts have been made to establish communication with the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover to ascertain their wake-up condition. As of now, no signals have been received from them. Efforts to establish contact will continue. — ISRO (@isro) September 22, 2023

• September 5, 2023

. @NASA 's LRO spacecraft recently imaged the Chandrayaan-3 lander on the Moon’s surface. The ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) Chandrayaan-3 touched down on Aug. 23, 2023, about 600 kilometers from the Moon’s South Pole. MORE >> https://t.co/phmOblRlGO pic.twitter.com/CyhFrnvTjT — NASA Marshall (@NASA_Marshall) September 5, 2023

• September 2, 2023

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: The Rover completed its assignments. It is now safely parked and set into Sleep mode. APXS and LIBS payloads are turned off. Data from these payloads is transmitted to the Earth via the Lander. Currently, the battery is fully charged. The solar panel is… — ISRO (@isro) September 2, 2023

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: In-situ scientific experiments continue ..... Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) instrument onboard the Rover unambiguously confirms the presence of Sulphur (S) in the lunar surface near the south pole, through first-ever in-situ measurements.… pic.twitter.com/vDQmByWcSL — ISRO (@isro) August 29, 2023

• August 26, 2023: National Space Day on August 23rd, Announced by PM Modi to mark the success of Chandrayaan 3 on the moon.
• Chandrayaan 3 touchdown point on the moon will now be known as Shivshakti.
• Chandrayaan 2 touchdown point on the moon's surface will now be known as Tiranga Point.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Here are the first observations from the ChaSTE payload onboard Vikram Lander. ChaSTE (Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment) measures the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the pole, to understand the thermal behaviour of the moon's… pic.twitter.com/VZ1cjWHTnd — ISRO (@isro) August 27, 2023

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: All planned Rover movements have been verified. The Rover has successfully traversed a distance of about 8 meters. Rover payloads LIBS and APXS are turned ON. All payloads on the propulsion module, lander module, and rover are performing nominally.… — ISRO (@isro) August 25, 2023

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Chandrayaan-3 ROVER: Made in India 🇮🇳 Made for the MOON🌖! The Ch-3 Rover ramped down from the Lander and India took a walk on the moon ! More updates soon. #Chandrayaan_3 #Ch3 — ISRO (@isro) August 24, 2023

• August 23, 2023: India's lunar mission Chandrayaan 3 has successfully landed on the south pole of the moon.
• August 20, 2023: The Lander Module is in 25 km x 134 km orbit. Powered descent is expected to commence on August 23, 2023, around 1745 Hrs. IST
• August 19, 2023: The Lander Module is in 113 km x 157 km orbit around the moon. Second de-boosting is planned for August 20, 2023
• August 17, 2023: Lander Module is successfully separated from the Propulsion Module. Deboosting planned for August 18, 2023
• August 16, 2023: The spacecraft is in an orbit of 153 km x 163 km after the firing on August 16, 2023
• August 14, 2023: The mission is in the orbit circularisation phase. The spacecraft is in 151 km x 179 km orbit
• August 09, 2023: Chandrayaan-3's orbit is reduced to 174 km x 1437 km following a manoeuvre performed on August 9, 2023
• July 06, 2023: The launch is scheduled for July 14, 2023, at 14:35 Hrs. IST from the Second Launch Pad, SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota

Chandrayaan History - Chandrayaan 1, 2 and 3

Is chandrayaan-3 successfully landed on moon.

Yes, Chandrayaan 3 has successfully made a successful landing on the Southern pole of the Moon.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: 'India🇮🇳, I reached my destination and you too!' : Chandrayaan-3 Chandrayaan-3 has successfully soft-landed on the moon 🌖!. Congratulations, India🇮🇳! #Chandrayaan_3 #Ch3 — ISRO (@isro) August 23, 2023

Chandrayaan 3 Photos and Videos

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: 🔍What's new here? Pragyan rover roams around Shiv Shakti Point in pursuit of lunar secrets at the South Pole 🌗! pic.twitter.com/1g5gQsgrjM — ISRO (@isro) August 26, 2023

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‘India Is on the Moon’: Lander’s Success Moves Nation to Next Space Chapter

The Chandrayaan-3 mission makes India the first country to reach the lunar south polar region in one piece and adds to the achievements of the country’s homegrown space program.

By Hari Kumar ,  Alex Travelli ,  Mujib Mashal and Kenneth Chang

Hari Kumar and Alex Travelli reported from Bengaluru, India, near the Chandrayaan-3 mission control.

• Published Aug. 23, 2023 Updated Aug. 24, 2023

Two visitors from India — a lander named Vikram and a rover named Pragyan — landed in the southern polar region of the moon on Wednesday. The two robots, from a mission named Chandrayaan-3, make India the first country to ever reach this part of the lunar surface in one piece — and only the fourth country ever to land on the moon.

“We have achieved soft landing on the moon,” S. Somanath, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, said after a roar ripped through the ISRO compound just past 6 p.m. local time. “India is on the moon.”

The Indian public already takes great pride in the accomplishments of the nation’s space program, which has orbited the moon and Mars and routinely launches satellites above the Earth with far fewer financial resources than other space-faring nations.

But the achievement of Chandrayaan-3 may be even sweeter, as it comes at a particularly important moment in the South Asian giant’s diplomatic push as an ambitious power on the rise.

India Successfully Lands Spacecraft on Moon’s Surface

The control room at the indian space research organization erupted in cheers when the chandrayaan-3 spacecraft landed on the southern polar region of the moon..

The altitude is being brought down from 800 meters. And we are nearing and approaching the lunar surface. He hung up a painting for the exact day. He the. People are applauding. From the Secretary department of space and chairman isro Somnath. I’m confident. That all countries in the world. Including those from the Global South. Are capable of achieving such feats. We can all aspire. Part of the moon and beyond.

Indian officials have been advocating in favor of a multipolar world order in which New Delhi is seen as indispensable to global solutions. In space exploration, as in many other fields, the message of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has been clear: The world will be a fairer place if India takes on a leadership role, even as the world’s most populous nation works to meet its people’s basic needs.

That assertiveness on the world stage is a central campaign message for Mr. Modi, who is up for re-election to a third term early next year. He has frequently fused his image with that of India’s rise as an economic, diplomatic and technological power.

Mr. Modi has been physically present at mission control for other recent moments in India’s space history, including during a successful orbit of Mars in 2014 and a failed moon landing in 2019 where he was seen consoling the scientists and hugging the chief of ISRO, who was weeping.

But the Chandrayaan-3 landing coincided with his trip to South Africa for a meeting of the group of nations known as BRICS . Mr. Modi’s face beamed into the control room in Bengaluru during the landing’s final minutes, where he was split-screen with the animation of the lander.

“Chandrayaan-3’s triumph mirrors the aspirations and capabilities of 1.4 billion Indians,” Mr. Modi said when the landing was complete, declaring the event as “the moment for new, developing India.”

In a country with a deep tradition of science, the excitement and anticipation around the landing provided a rare moment of unity in what has otherwise been fraught times of sectarian tension stoked by divisive policies of Mr. Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist party.

Prayers were offered for the mission’s success at Hindu temples, Sikh Gurdwaras and Muslim mosques. Schools held special ceremonies and organized live viewings of the moon landing, with an official YouTube video of the event racking up tens of millions of views. The police band in the city of Mumbai, India’s commercial and entertainment hub, sent a “special musical tribute” to the scientists, performing a popular patriotic song.

“There is full faith,” the song, in Hindi, says. “We will succeed.”

The Indian mission launched in July, taking a slow, fuel-conscious route toward the moon. But Chandrayaan-3 out-endured its Russian counterpart, Luna-25, which launched 12 days ago. Luna-25 was scheduled to land on the moon on Monday in the same general vicinity as the Indian craft but crashed on Saturday following an engine malfunction.

That India managed to outdo Russia, which as the Soviet Union put the first satellite, man and woman in space, speaks to the diverging fortunes of the two nations’ space programs.

Much of India’s foreign policy in recent decades has been shaped by a delicate balancing act between Washington and Moscow, but the country is grappling more with an increasingly aggressive China at its borders. The two countries’ militaries have been stuck in a standoff in the Himalayas for three years now, and the vulnerability to a threat from China is a major driving factor in India’s calculations.

A shared frustration with Beijing has only increased U.S. and Indian cooperation , including in space, where China is establishing itself in direct competition with the United States.

And with the success of Chandrayaan-3, Mr. Modi can reap benefits in leaning into India’s scientific prowess to “more confidently assert Indian national interest on the world stage,” said Bharat Karnad, an emeritus professor of national security studies at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi.

The control room in Bengaluru became a joyous scene among the engineers, scientists and technicians of the Indian Space Research Organization.

Speaking after the landing, members of the ISRO leadership who managed Chandrayaan-3 made clear that the failure of their last moon landing attempt, in 2019, was a major driving force behind their work.

“From the day we started rebuilding our spacecraft after Chandaryaan-2 experience, it has been breathe in, breathe out Chandrayaan-3 for our team,” said Kalpana Kalahasti, the mission’s associate project director.

Chandrayaan-3 has been orbiting the moon since early August. On Sunday, an engine burn pushed the lander into an elliptical orbit that passed within 15 miles of the surface. On Wednesday, as the spacecraft approached the low point of the orbit, moving at more than 3,700 miles per hour, a preprogrammed sequence of maneuvers commenced.

The craft’s four engines fired again at the start of what ISRO called the “rough braking” portion of the descent, its speed of fall accelerating. After 11.5 minutes, the lander was just over 4.5 miles above the surface and started rotating from a horizontal to a vertical position while continuing its descent.

The spacecraft stopped to hover about 150 yards above the surface for a few seconds, then resumed its downward journey until it settled gently on the surface, about 370 miles from the south pole. The landing sequence took about 19 minutes.

Chandrayaan-3 is a scientific mission, timed for a two-week period when the sun will shine on the landing site and provide energy for the solar-powered lander and rover. The lander and rover will use a range of instruments to make thermal, seismic and mineralogical measurements.

India and ISRO have many other plans afoot.

Although an Indian astronaut flew to orbit on a Soviet spacecraft in 1984, the country has never sent people to space on its own. India is preparing its first astronaut mission, called Gaganyaan. But the project, which aims to send three Indian astronauts to space on the country’s own spacecraft, has faced delays, and ISRO has not announced a date.

The country is also working on launching a solar observatory called Aditya-L1 in early September, and later, an Earth observation satellite built jointly with NASA. India is also planning a follow-up to its recently concluded Mars orbiter mission.

Mr. Somanath has described the current moment as an inflection point, with the country opening its space efforts to private investors after half a century of state monopoly that made advances but at “a shoestring budget mode of working.”

“These are very cost-effective missions,” Mr. Somanath said after the landing. “No one in the world can do it like we do.”

When pressed by reporters about the cost of Chandrayaan-3, Mr. Somanath deflected with laughter: “I won’t disclose such secrets, we don’t want everyone else to become so cost-effective!”

While ISRO will continue exploring the solar system, the accomplishments of India’s private sector may soon garner as much attention. A younger generation of space engineers, inspired by SpaceX , have started going into business on their own. While ISRO’s budget in the past fiscal year was less than $1.5 billion, the size of India’s private space economy is already at least $6 billion and is expected to triple as soon as 2025.

And the pace of change is quickening. Mr. Modi’s government wants India to harness the private sector’s entrepreneurial energy to put more satellites and investment into space — and faster.

Up on the moon Vikram and Pragyan were set to get to work, with the rover possibly rolling onto the lunar surface in the coming hours or sometime on Thursday according to Mr. Somanath. The landing site, on a plateau south of the Manzinus crater and to the west of the Boguslawsky crater, is at about the same latitude as the edge of Antarctica on Earth.

To date, spacecraft have successfully landed on the moon closer to the equator. The polar regions are intriguing because there is frozen water at the bottom of permanently shadowed craters. If such water can be found in sufficient quantities and extracted, astronauts could use it for future space exploration.

The lunar south pole is the intended destination for astronauts who could visit the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program, and also for upcoming Chinese and Russian missions. In the nearer term, as many as three robotic missions, one from Japan and two from private U.S. companies working with NASA, could head to the moon later this year.

But in Bengaluru after the launch, Mr. Somanath hinted that India had its eyes on worlds beyond the moon.

“It is very difficult for any nation to achieve. But we have done so with just two attempts,” he said. “It gives confidence to land on Mars and maybe Venus and other planets, maybe asteroids.”

Hari Kumar is a reporter in the New Delhi bureau. He joined The Times in 1997. More about Hari Kumar

Alex Travelli is a correspondent for The Times based in New Delhi, covering business and economic matters in India and the rest of South Asia. He previously worked as an editor and correspondent for The Economist. More about Alex Travelli

Mujib Mashal is The Times’s bureau chief for South Asia. Born in Kabul, he wrote for magazines including The Atlantic, Harper’s and Time before joining The Times. More about Mujib Mashal

Kenneth Chang has been at The Times since 2000, writing about physics, geology, chemistry, and the planets. Before becoming a science writer, he was a graduate student whose research involved the control of chaos. More about Kenneth Chang

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The Planetary Society • Feb 13, 2024

The history and motivations behind India's growing space program

In 2023, India became the fourth nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon. The success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission helped establish India as a capable space power and bolstered its growing space ambitions.

The history of India's space program is in many ways the inverse of the history of the U.S. and Russia’s programs. While these superpowers were racing to outdo each other with symbolic, high-profile achievements that culminated in the Apollo Moon landings, India focused on the practical and immediate benefits of space.

That has recently started to change. Buoyed by the success of Chandrayaan-3 and a desire to compete with China, India has announced ambitious human spaceflight plans that include space stations and a Moon landing.

Gurbir Singh joined us on Planetary Radio: Space Policy Edition on Jan. 5, 2024 to talk about the history and motivations behind India’s space program. Singh is the author of The Indian Space Programme: India's Incredible Journey from the Third World towards the First.

The original transcript has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Casey Dreier: Gurbir Singh, thank you so much for joining us on Planetary Radio: Space Policy Edition this month. I'm happy you're here.

Gurbir Singh: Well, thanks very much for reaching out. I'm really delighted to be here.

Casey Dreier: This is a big topic, so we might as well start at the beginning. Why did India start a space program in 1963?

Gurbir Singh: I use the launch of the very first rocket from Indian soil as a marker for the start of the program. That was a suborbital rocket launched from southern India. The payload was a small sodium capsule, which diffused at an altitude of about 150 kilometers. Watching how that payload dispersed was the experiment. That started what we today call the Indian Space Research Organization, or ISRO.

At that point India had been independent [from the British] for about a decade and a half, and the space program was part of the nation-building activities that were taking place. At that time, there were post-World War II developments in England and most of Europe, such as televisions, telephones, and commercial air flights. These were really becoming available to just about everybody.

The space age had started with the launch of Sputnik in 1957 and Yuri Gagarin's flight in 1961. The Indian prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, really believed in science. He believed that the new nation of India, independent India, should be forged on what he called the scientific temper, the temperament of science. So he put science at the forefront, and that's really why space was almost inevitable.

Casey Dreier: What's interesting to me is that India didn’t create this as a Cold War competition. It wasn’t throwing its hat in to compete directly, or to establish itself as a regional power. There were internal and domestic reasons that it wanted to establish a space capability. Is that an accurate way to think of this?

Gurbir Singh: There is a very long tradition of science in Indian history. By the time India became independent, there were many successful Indian scientists of international repute, such as Vikram Sarabhai, who's considered as the father of the Indian space program. They were bright, gifted, and came from very successful industrial families. They had a lot of cash, and they also had contacts in high society. They knew the prime minister. So they were moving in the right circles. And I think that synergy helped to kickstart India in the direction it went.

Casey Dreier: You write that, unlike the space programs being established at the time in the U.S. and Soviet Union, India’s program from the outset was wholly non-military and built to meet the social needs of its huge population. It was really almost inwardly directed as a modernizing force rather than a demonstration of technological competition or global hegemony.

Gurbir Singh: Having lived under suppression, under the control of another nation, was seen as a national humiliation. India did not want to return to that. There was a desire for self-sufficiency rather than some sort of hegemony or sense of superiority over other countries. India is probably the only country with a space program which had entirely non-military foundations, although since then, it has grown to include military aspects.

Casey Dreier: For the first few decades, ISRO focused on servicing the Indian population. But then, in the 1990s, there’s a proposal to send the Chandrayaan-1 scientific mission to the Moon. What caused this new era of exploration to develop within ISRO?

Gurbir Singh: The Moon mission and many other ISRO space programs have been influenced by similar programs in China. In 2003, China had its first human spaceflight success. In 2007, they sent a spacecraft to the Moon. They have built their own space stations. So India has been following in China’s footsteps, just like what happened in the Cold War between the U.S. and Soviet Union.

If China had not gone to the Moon, India wouldn't have gone to the Moon. There's this wonderful quote in a book by the Soviet engineer Boris Chertok where he says that if there hadn't been a Gagarin, there wouldn’t have been an Armstrong.

Casey Dreier: You write that in 2013, India went to Mars with the Mars Orbiter Mission Mangalyaan because both Japan and China had tried and failed. After Mangalyaan, China followed up with its own Tianwen mission and successfully landed. Are we seeing an increase in this tit-for-tat competition?

Gurbir Singh: India went to Mars in 2013 because there was a Chinese spacecraft on board the Fobos-Grunt spacecraft launched by Russia in 2011. That spacecraft never left Earth orbit and failed. India realized that there would be an opportunity to launch a small mission to Mars in 2013, and get there before China.

The spacecraft only had five instruments, which was very stark. A few years after the ISRO chairman had served his time and wrote a book, he admitted that the whole reason why India went to Mars was because China failed, and the whole intention was to be able to say that India got to Mars before China.

We saw this behavior during the Cold War with Sputnik, Gagarin, and Valentina Tereshkova. Every country's trying to wave a flag and say, “we did this.” There's nothing politicians like more than that.

Casey Dreier: Let's talk about the Modi government's relationship to space. Would you characterize that as a natural extension of the previous government's approach to ISRO and space, or is there something different in their approach and embrace of ISRO and its ambitions?

Gurbir Singh: India has always treated ISRO as the goose that lays the golden eggs. It's something all political parties can benefit from, because apart from the fact that it allows the incumbent prime minister to wave India's flag at every ISRO success, ISRO actually is one of the more successful and competent departments of the government. It's traditionally been supported throughout India's history, regardless of the government.

In prime minister Modi's case, during the Chandrayaan-3 touchdown, he was in a live stream split screen. You could see the lander coming into land, and Modi was there waving a small Indian flag. Immediately after the soft landing of Chandrayaan-3, chairman Somanath got onto the pedestal and said, "India is on the Moon." And then he handed the microphone to the prime minister. I hadn't appreciated what an opportunity he would have to address an international audience. He made a 10-minute speech and said all the things that any politician would say.

Casey Dreier: You wrote in your 2017 book that the Modi government is a dynamic government with a nationalist and aggressive economic agenda, and it’s been positioning itself to use the Indian space program as an instrument for regional influence. Has that played out in the way that you thought it would?

Gurbir Singh: The desire for India to be a regional superpower hasn't quite worked out, mainly because India hoped to capture the launch market for nearby countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. But the growth in the international commercial space sector has meant that it's actually quite practical and cost-effective for these countries not to go to the nearest provider, India.

India’s cadence of launches is still very low. Its highest launch rate to Earth orbit or beyond has been seven launches in a year. This year alone, China has already achieved 47, and the U.S. more than 100. I think this has been driving the political changes that's opened up the commercial space sector in India.

The main thing that's been preoccupying ISRO is the Gaganyaan program. India has been developing a launch abort system, parachutes, and capsule recovery techniques. The recent signing of the Artemis Accords and the agreement to have an Indian astronaut go to the International Space Station with NASA will help accelerate the Gaganyaan program. There will be various deals of technology transfer and systems components being sold to India as a result of the collaborative arrangements that are now in place.

Casey Dreier: If the U.S. is increasingly seeing China as a competitive nation in space, then it starts to become a U.S. interest to support India as a backstop against regional influence from China.

Gurbir Singh: That's spot on, and really the reason why India signed the Artemis Accords.

The Artemis Accords would not have been as significant or profound if the International Lunar Research Station did not exist. The International Lunar Research Station is essentially an organization that China and Russia established, but now really China's running with it. The U.S. offered India a really good deal because they didn't want India to go to the International Lunar Research Station.

I think the main reason why India signed is because as part of this agreement, your president offered the Indian prime minister to come speak to a joint assembly of Congress. Any prime minister, especially one who has an election coming up next year, is not going to let that go. He had, I think, a four-day state visit to the U.S. and it's that package deal that made India sign the Artemis Accords.

Casey Dreier: In the past few years, ISRO has opened up to commercial space flight, started a serious effort for human spaceflight, announced an Indian space station, and is aiming for the Moon by 2040. This strikes me as a profound transformation of the role ISRO is going to play in Indian geopolitics.

It seems like the organization has a huge amount of capability to do things, but it's also struggling with capacity. Does that strike you as the biggest challenge facing ISRO and the Indian space community?

Gurbir Singh: I think a lack of capacity has been something that many previous ISRO chairs have identified, and that’s been the motivating factor for opening up the private space sector.

As a result of new space policies, about 200 startup space companies are now operating in India. I think this is where the future of Indian space activities lies: with ISRO helping startups and being supported by startups.

Casey Dreier: I saw that ISRO is facing a budget cut from the Modi government despite all these new ambitions being proposed. What does that tell you about the political commitment to the Indian space program?

Gurbir Singh: Generally, over the last decade or so, ISRO's budget has been increasing. It's at about one-and-a-quarter to one-and-a-half billion U.S. dollars annually. The Gaganyaan program itself, just as a standalone, multi-year program, has been awarded about one billion U.S. dollars. And there was some unspent budget from 2020 and 2021, when not much happened. The Indian economy is doing really well relative to many other Western countries. Economic growth this coming year should lead to a budget increase in the next year.

Casey Dreier: Gurbir Singh is the author of The Indian Space Programme, a book that I really enjoyed and highly recommend to anyone fascinated by this topic. Gurbir, how can people find you online?

Gurbir Singh: The web address for me is gurbir.co.uk , and if anybody's interested in my podcast, I do that on astrotalkuk.org .

Casey Dreier: Thank you so much for being here this month. I hope to have you back in the future.

Gurbir Singh: Great talking to you.

Listen to the full interview on Planetary Radio: Space Policy Edition .

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India’s moon mission should be considered a success, and a lesson in spacefaring

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Over the weekend, India attempted to make history by becoming just the fourth nation to successfully land a probe on the Moon. It came agonisingly close, but after journeying millions of kilometres, the Vikram lander lost contact in the final few hundred metres and crash-landed on the lunar surface.

But it would be both unfair and plain wrong to label the mission a failure.

Two-month trip

After a postponed launch, India’s Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft began its journey to the Moon on July 22.

Onboard it carried the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover, equipped to search the lunar south pole for water and other valuable resources. Everything seemed to be going according to plan. Chandrayaan-2 completed several orbits around Earth and then the Moon, slowly making its way closer to the lunar surface and taking photographs the whole time.

On September 2, the Vikram lander separated and began to make its descent. All communications were normal until the lander was within 2km of its goal.

Then it went silent – a space engineer’s worst nightmare.

Vikram, do you copy?

So far, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) engineers have not been able to reestablish communications with the lander. It’s likely Vikram landed with enough force to damage its communications equipment, as well as other instruments.

But all hope was not lost, as Chandrayaan-2 remained in orbit above the Moon and, with its high-resolution camera, was able to spot the lander. If oriented favourably, Vikram could still manage to power itself up.

ISRO has not admitted defeat and will keep trying to connect to Vikram for the next two weeks. However, the chances of success diminish with time.

While the Chandrayaan-2 mission has not gone as expected, it cannot be called a failure. The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter will continue to monitor the Moon for up to seven years and the high-resolution images it takes will be vital to future international efforts to land on the Moon.

Technically a success

The near success of Vikram’s landing should be celebrated. To appreciate just how hard it is, let’s delve into some physics.

Earth is rotating and also hurtling through space at more than 100,000km per hour. The Moon is almost 400,000km away and travelling around 4,000km per hour as it orbits Earth.

To reach the Moon, you first have to escape Earth’s gravity and ensure you’re going at the right speed to orbit Earth a few times before moving far enough to be caught by the Moon. Then you slowly decrease your distance to the lunar surface, inching closer over several orbits until you are low enough to use powered assistance to land.

Read more: India has it right: nations either aim for the Moon or get left behind in the space economy

It took the United States and Russia decades to design, plan and execute missions to the Moon. In fact, the ISRO was founded shortly after the successful Apollo 11 mission.

We should applaud the hard work India has done over the past 50 years to get this far. This sentiment was clear as Indian prime minister Narendra Modi addressed his country, all of whom stood in solidarity with the scientists who spent countless hours in pursuit of their goal.

A global space community

The story of the Indian lander echoes that of the failed Israeli landing attempt earlier this year.

The Beresheet lander was built by private company SpaceIL, which was chasing the coveted Google Lunar XPrize when an engine malfunction caused it to swan dive into the Moon’s surface.

I mention this mission to reiterate just how hard the task is, but also to demonstrate that the old Cold War space superpowers are no longer the only ones in the game. Countries and even private companies across the world are gaining spacefaring capabilities and undertaking incredible missions that will enable humankind to go further than ever before.

In the next five years, more than a dozen missions to the Moon from six different countries, including Japan and Korea, are slated. This doesn’t include NASA’s ambitious Artemis mission that seeks to put the first woman on the Moon.

Read more: Five reasons India, China and other nations plan to travel to the Moon

But as the cliché goes, with great power comes great responsibility.

Now that countries across the world can send things into space, we must have solidarity as a global spacefaring community to consider how our actions up there will affect us on Earth and to ensure long-term success in space ventures.

This is not the last international space mission you will hear about in the news this year.

In coming years, we may even be discussing Australian ventures into space – and maybe even to the Moon itself .

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Chandrayaan 2 Mission Essay [UPSC Notes GS III]

Chandrayaan Mission was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and was India’s first mission to the moon. The spacecraft was launched on 22nd October 2008 by a modified version of the PSLV C-11 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. The vehicle was successfully inserted into lunar orbit on 8 November 2008.

ISRO is planning mission Chandrayaan-3 in late 2021 or early 2022. India launched Chandrayaan-2, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota on 22nd July 2019.

Chandrayaan Mission is an important topic of the UPSC Syllabus . This article is an essay on Chandrayaan 2 and Chandrayaan 1 (India’s lunar mission).

What is Chandrayaan 1?

In 1999, the Indian Academy of Sciences initiated an idea of undertaking an Indian scientific mission to Moon. This initiative was followed by a discussion with the Astronautical Society of India in 2000. Based on the recommendations, a National Lunar Mission Task Force was constituted by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) . Thereafter, India’s first lunar mission Chandrayaan – 1 was launched on 22nd October 2008 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

Objectives of Chandrayaan 1:

• To perform high-resolution remote sensing of the moon’s surface.
• To provide a three-dimensional atlas of the Moon (near and far side).
• To conduct chemical and mineralogical studies for mapping of the entire lunar surface.
• To test the impact of a sub-satellite on the lunar surface for its future soft-landing missions.

The mission successfully detected the presence of titanium and calcium along with the accurate measurements of iron, aluminium and magnesium on the moon. The Chandrayaan Mission 1 ended on 28 August 2009 after the communications to the probe were suddenly lost. The probe lasted for 312 days. The estimated cost of this project cost was Rs.386 Crore or US$60 million.

Essay on Chandrayaan 2

Chandrayaan – 2 is the second lunar mission of India after the success of Chandrayaan 1. This mission was conducted for topographical researches and mineralogical studies to have a better understanding of the Moon’s origin and evolution. Chandrayaan 2 Mission was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space on July 22, 2019, by GSLV Mk III-M1 . The main aim of Chandrayaan 2 was to trace the location and abundance of lunar water on the moon’s surface.

Highlights of Chandrayaan 2

• Chandrayaan 2 fostered the findings of Chandrayaan 1 as reported by the ISRO.
• The mission targeted the “South Polar region” of the Moon which was completely unexplored.
• The mission focused on the extensive mapping of the lunar surface for studying variations in its composition and tracing the Moon’s origin and evolution.
• Chandrayaan 2 was considered as a challenging mission as the South Polar Region of the Moon was totally unexplored by any space agency before.

Components of Chandrayaan – 2: Launch Vehicle

• S200 solid rocket booster
• L110 liquid state
• C25 Upper stage

The Chandrayaan-2 mission consisted of three main modules:

• lunar orbiter
• Vikram lander (named after Vikram Sarabhai, the late father of India’s space program)
• lunar rover named Pragyan

All of the above parts were developed in India.

The orbiter, lander and rover collectively carried 14 scientific payloads, including a Laser Retro Reflector Array from NASA that provided precise measurements of the distance between the Moon and the Earth. Chandrayaan-2’s orbiter shall continue its mission for around a year.

The Indian space programme form a part of the science and technology and current affairs segments of the UPSC syllabus and is an important topic for the UPSC exam. Aspirants can refer to the UPSC Mains Syllabus at the linked article.

Significance of Chandrayaan 2

In all the space missions, no country has ever attempted to land a spacecraft in the polar regions of the moon. This gave India a lead in space exploration on an international level.

• Due to the moon’s axis, few regions on the South Pole always remains dark especially the craters and have higher chances of containing water.
• The craters might have never received sunlight because it at very low angles in the Polar Regions and thus, increasing the chances of presence of ice on such surfaces.
• The lunar surface area at the south pole of the Moon that remains in shadow is much larger than the North Pole thus making moon’s South Pole interesting. This also increases the probability of the existence of water in permanently shadowed areas around it.
• The second de-orbiting manoeuvre for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully today on September 04, 2019, beginning at 0342 hrs IST as planned, using the onboard propulsion system. The duration of the manoeuvre was 9 seconds.
• On October 14, 2019, Chandrayaan-2 detected the presence of Argon-40 in the lunar exosphere.
• On July 30th, 2020 Chandrayaan-2 imaged the Sarabhai Crater located on the north-east quadrant of the moon

Chandrayaan-2 Mission: Updates

• The orbital insertion was achieved on 20th August 2019. The Orbiter has a life duration of 7 years and will continue its mission.
• Vikram Lander had a mission life of 14 days. The landing on the moon’s surface was planned on 7th September 2019. However, the landing failed at the final stages. Vikram lander crash-landed on the moon’s surface as the velocity was higher than desired velocity (2 m/s) and the Failure Analysis Committee of ISRO concluded that a software glitch was the cause of the failure.
• Pragyan Rover was planned for a duration of around 14 days. As the landing failed, the rover could not be deployed on the moon’s surface.

(ISRO) has released the data from the country’s second mission to the Moon, the Chandrayaan-2, for the general public.

• The Chandrayaan-2 data is required to be in the Planetary Data System-4 (PDS4) standard, and is required to be peer reviewed scientifically and technically before acceptance as PDS archives and declared ready for sharing with the global scientific community and the general public.
• ISSDC is the nodal centre of planetary data archive for the planetary missions of ISRO.
• All experiments have been performing well and the data received suggests excellent capability to deliver on the pre-launch promises.
• ISDA is the long-term archive for ISRO planetary missions.

Chandrayaan 2 – UPSC Notes:-  Download PDF Here

Aspirants of the UPSC exam are advised to check other relevant topics given below for the comprehensive preparation of their upcoming examinations-

Aspirants can check BYJU’S UPSC Notes page for free GS1, GS2, and GS 3 notes.

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Essay on Chandrayaan 3 🧑‍🚀: Timeline, Successful Landing

• Updated on  
• Mar 15, 2024

To mark the successful landing of the Chandryaan-3 on the lunar surface, the Indian Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi , announced that 23rd August will be annually celebrated as National Space Day.

This article will cover some samples of essay on Chandryaan-3. Chandrayaan-3 was the first Indian spacecraft to successfully land on the south pole of the lunar surface. It was launched on 14th July 2023 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from its Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC)-SHAR in Sriharikota , Andhra Pradesh. On 23rd August at 18:03 IST, the lander ‘ Vikram ‘ touched down on the lunar south pole. This showed India’s capability of safely landing on the lunar surface, thus making it the first country to step on a lunar-south pole through Chandrayaan 3 .

Master the art of essay writing with our blog on How to Write an Essay in English .

Table of Contents

• 1 Essay on Chandrayaan-3 in 100 Words
• 2 Essay on Chandrayaan 3 in English 150 Words
• 3 Essay on Chandrayaan 3 in 200 Words
• 4 Timeline of Chandryaan 3
• 5.1 Points about Chandrayaan-3

Also Read: Essay on Peer Pressure: 100, 200 and 450 Word Samples in English

Essay on Chandrayaan-3 in 100 Words

The first lunar exploration mission in the history of ISRO was Chandrayan. It was launched in the year 2008 and since then 2 more follow missions have been launched under this program. 

The second follow-up mission was launched in 2019 and followed by a third follow-up mission in 2023. The success of Chandrayaan 3 has marked the country in different records such as the first country to land on the moon’s south pole and the most cost-effective execution. 

It was launched on July 14, 2023, from Sriharikota’s SDSC SHAR and landed successfully on 23rd August 2023. The mission will be carried down for 14 Earth days i.e. the Rover on the ladder will roam around the moon and study its surface for 14 days. This successful attempt has made India very sure of further development and planned missions for the Moon.

Essay on Chandrayaan 3 in English 150 Words

Chandrayaan-3 is India’s ambitious space mission which has made India proud. It was a successful space mission aimed to conduct a soft landing at the lunar south pole of the moon through the Vikram Lander. The spacecraft is also equipped with a Rover Pragyan consisting of payloads to study the moon’s surface. Apart from this, there were 9 sensors in the Lander.

Talking about the Payloads, there were 4 payloads in the lander namely ChaSTE, ILSA, RAMBHA, and LRA. 2 Rover payloads were APXS and LIBS. The propulsion module also contains a payload i.e. SHAPE. These payloads are designed to study the moon’s surface.

Chandrayaan-3 was active for 14 Earth days in the presence of the sun. After which, the Lander and the Rover were kept to sleep on 2 September because they could not function in the absence of sunlight. Later, efforts were made to wake Lander and Rover when the sunlight hit the moon’s surface. But ISRO revealed that there were no signals from the Lander and Rover.

Despite this, the project was a successful one and it has marked the name of India in Golden words in the history of Space.

Hon’ble Prime Minister of India has named the landing spot of Chandrayaan-3 as Shiv Shakti Point.

Essay on Chandrayaan 3 in 200 Words

Chandrayaan-3 is the most successful follow-up mission in the history of Indian space missions. It was followed by the successful Chandrayaan 1 and partly successful Chandrayaan 2. It has made a successful soft landing on the lunar surface and made India the fourth country to land on the lunar surface. 

It also marked India as the first country to land on the Moon’s south pole. It examined the presence of water and also gathered some valuable scientific information and data about its mineral composition and its geology. 

One of the main objections to this lunar mission was to make a soft landing. The Rover ‘Pragyan” will roam on the lunar surface for 1 Lunar day (Around 14 Earth Days). 

The cost of Chandrayaan 3 is much less than the previous attempt which is around INR 615 Crores making it the most cost-effective lunar mission. 

Timeline of Chandryaan 3

On 7th September 2019, ISRO’s Chandryaan 2 crashed while attempting a soft landing on the lunar surface. Since then, the Indian Space Research Organisation decided to build a successor to the Chandrayaan 2.

• 06 July 2023 – Chandryaan 3 is scheduled to launch on July 14, 2023, at 14:35 Hrs. IST from the Second Launch Pad, SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota.
• 07 July 2023 – Vehicle electrical tests completed. 
• 11 July 2023 – The ‘Launch Rehearsal’ simulation the launch preparation and process lasting 24 hours was concluded.
• 14 July 2023 – LVM3 M4 vehicle successfully launched Chandrayaan-3 into orbit. Chandrayaan-3, in its precise orbit, started its journey to the Moon.
• 15 July 2023 – The first orbit-raising manoeuvre was performed at ISTRAC/ISRO, Bengaluru. The spacecraft was in 41762 km x 173 km orbit.
• 17 July 2023 – The second orbit-raising manoeuvre was performed. The spacecraft was in 41603 km x 226 km orbit.
• 25 July 2023 – The last orbit-raising manoeuvre was performed.
• 01 August 2023 – The spacecraft entered the translunar orbit.
• 05 August 2023 – Chandrayaan-3 was successfully inserted into the lunar orbit.
• 14 August 2023 – The mission was in the orbit circularisation phase. 
• 17 August 2023 – The Lander Module was successfully separated from the Propulsion Module.
• 23 August 2023 – Chandrayaan-3 successfully reached its destination Chandrayaan-3 completed soft-landed on the moon. Congratulations, India!

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Vikram Lander is set into sleep mode around 08:00 Hrs. IST today. Prior to that, in-situ experiments by ChaSTE, RAMBHA-LP and ILSA payloads are performed at the new location. The data collected is received at the Earth. Payloads are now switched off.… pic.twitter.com/vwOWLcbm6P — ISRO (@isro) September 4, 2023

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Chandrayaan-3's triumph mirrors the aspirations and capabilities of 140 crore Indians. To new horizons and beyond! Proud moment for 🇮🇳. https://t.co/4oi6w7TCGG — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 23, 2023

Read More About Chandryaan 3

About Chandrayaan Project

The Chandrayaan Project is one of the most successful projects in the history of India’s space agency. It was launched by ISRO for the exploration of the lunar surface. 

The first mission i.e. Chandrayaan-1 was launched on 22 October 2008. It was a successful mission and was inserted into the lunar orbit on 8th November 2008. It marked a new success for the country and India became the fifth country in world history to reach the lunar surface. The cost of this mission was around 386 crores a lot less than any other space agency. The most prominent discovery of this mission was the presence of water molecules in the lunar south pole. It stopped communication with the base on 28 August 2009 and was declared over.

Chandrayaan-2 was followed by a second mission that was launched on 22 July 2019. It was successfully inserted into the lunar orbit on 20 August 2019 but failed to make a soft landing on the lunar surface on 6th September 2019 just 2.1 km away from the surface. However, it was declared partly successful because the orbiter was still functional for around 7.5 years.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: The Rover completed its assignments. It is now safely parked and set into Sleep mode. APXS and LIBS payloads are turned off. Data from these payloads is transmitted to the Earth via the Lander. Currently, the battery is fully charged. The solar panel is… — ISRO (@isro) September 2, 2023

Points about Chandrayaan-3

Another successful lunar landing attempt was made recently in the year 2023 and was launched on 14 July 2023. It completed its landing and the lander “Vikram Lander” and Rover “Pragyan” landed on the lunar south pole on 23rd August 2023. 

The main aim of this mission is the same as the Chandrayaan 2 to study the atmosphere of the moon and also explore its mineral composition. It will also further explore the presence of water in the lunar surface. The cost of this follow-up mission is around INR 615 crores making it one of the most cost-effective lunar missions.

Read all of our other popular essays

The first mission of Chandrayaan i.e. Chandrayaan 1 was launched in 2008. It was followed by Chandrayaan 2 and Chandrayaan-3 in 2019 and 2023 respectively. The latest version of Chandrayaan was a successful attempt to make India the first country to land safely on the Moon’s South Pole region.

The successful attempt of Chandrayaan 3 made India the first country to land on the moon in its south pole region. 

The cost of Chandrayaan 3 is approximately 615 crores ($75 million). It is the most affordable and successful mission to land on moon in the history. 

Chandrayaan-3 was a successful mission by the Indian Space Research Organization. It has demonstrated a soft landing on the unexplored lunar south pole of the moon and conducted in-situ research. It was launched on 14 July 2023 and landed on 23 August 2023.

Hence, we hope that this blog has assisted you in comprehending what an essay on Chandrayaan 3 must include. For more information on such interesting topics, visit our  essay writing  page and follow  Leverage Edu .

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An avid writer and a creative person. With an experience of 1.5 years content writing, Simran has worked with different areas. From medical to working in a marketing agency with different clients to Ed-tech company, the journey has been diverse. Creative, vivacious and patient are the words that describe her personality.

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Chandrayaan-1: The first time India ‘touched’ the Moon

Chandrayaan-1 carried a module called the moon impact probe, which was dropped to the lunar surface as proof of india’s arrival..

“Madhavan, what evidence are you going to show before the world that we reached the Moon?” APJ Abdul Kalam asked G Madhavan Nair, the chairman of Isro (2003-2009), prior to the launch of Chandrayaan-1 in 2008 .

“When we carried out missions to Everest and Antarctica, we placed our flag there. In the case of the Moon mission, we are relying to convince the world with a lot of digital data. Don’t you think we should do something more?” Dr Kalam asked.

At the time he raised this question, Dr Kalam was the President of India and the country’s most respected scientific mind .

Nair writes in his autobiographical work Rocketing Through the Skies: An Eventful Life at ISRO (2023), that this one simple question modified his entire perspective – giving birth to the concept of the Moon Impact Probe (MIP), carried aboard Chandrayaan-1 .

As Chandrayaan -3 lands on the Moon today, we recall when India first “planted a flag” on the Moon.

India’s first foray to the Moon

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924-2018) announced India’s moon mission in his Independence Day speech in 2003. This would be India’s first foray outside Earth’s gravitational pull and the most challenging task undertaken by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) until then.

Five years after Vajpayee’s announcement, on October 22, 2008 a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) blasted off from Isro’s launch site at Sriharikota, beginning Chandrayaan-1’s journey to the moon. The PSLV initially placed Chandrayaan-1 on a high elliptical orbit around Earth. Over the next three weeks, the spacecraft carried out some highly complex, extremely precise manoeuvres to finally orbit the Moon.

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“… after 21 days, Chandrayaan-1 dropped into an elliptical orbit around the Moon, where it was 500 km from the Moon at the closest point and 10,000 km away at the farthest,” Nair writes. After a couple of days of testing all equipment aboard the spacecraft, it was further lowered into a circular orbit around the Moon, at an altitude of 200 km.

India’s maiden attempt to put a spacecraft into a precise orbit around the moon was a complete success. But this was not enough.

The Moon Impact Probe

While Dr Kalam’s request seemed simple enough, the actual task of accommodating it was far from easy, as Madhavan Nair realised when he called a meeting of Isro scientists to discuss the topic.

“Some conservatives said that it was impossible to accommodate such a scheme at that late a stage within the tight budget and schedule constraints.,” he writes in his book.

But ultimately, some “youngsters” in Isro took the lead. The MIP, with the national flag inscribed on it, comprised three instruments – a mass spectrometer, a camera, and an altimeter. The probe itself was made of aluminium honeycomb, “making it quite robust”.

The idea was to drop the MIP near the lunar south pole – when the spacecraft would be at the intended location, Isro’s control centre would send a command, following which, computers onboard would carry out the operation to detach the MIP from the craft and send it hurtling towards the moon.

D-Day: India plants her flag on the Moon

The MIP was scheduled to be dropped on the lunar surface on November 14, 2008. An hour before this sequence was to be initiated, Dr Kalam entered Isro’s control room at Peenya, Bengaluru.

“I arranged spiced buttermilk – his favourite – for him and explained the details of the mission. He went around the newly built control room and appreciated the internal architecture as well as the sophisticated instrumentation,” Nair writes about Dr Kalam’s visit. “Dr Kalam was excited to see the most modern set-up and remarked that he felt as if he was in wonderland!”

At exactly 8.06 pm, the command to initiate the Moon impact sequence was transmitted to Chandrayaan-1. To commence the free fall, the velocity of the MIP was reduced by firing the small solid rocket attached to it.

“As we looked anxiously at the screens in the control room, the MIP descended on the Moon and finally impacted at a spot near the pole, beside the Shackleton crater,” Madhavan Nair writes in his book.

India enters an elite club of countries

The moment was the culmination of decades of hard work by Isro scientists. While its origins had definitely been humble, on November 14, 2008, Isro entered a league of elite space agencies in the world – that too at a fraction of a cost.

“The Indian flag on the MIP inscribed India’s presence on the Moon forever, heralding the nation’s entry into the elite club of the countries that had earlier placed national flags on the Moon (the USA, Russia and China),” Nair wrote.

As Madhavan Nair made it to the press box to tell the country about this monumental achievement, once again he was met by Dr Kalam.

“You, buddy, you have done it!” Dr Kalam told Nair. To the entire control room, he said: “’Today is a historic day as India has accomplished this fantastic mission. I congratulate each and every one of you!”

Before returning to New Delhi, however, he made a notable suggestion – to name the impact site after Pandit Nehru, on whose birthday the landing was made and whose vision was crucial to the creation of Isro. After receiving appropriate permissions from the government, the site was named “Jawahar Sthal”.

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How India's Moon missions went from Somayaan to Chandrayaan

While scientists had picked out the name ‘Somayaan’ from a Sanskrit verse in the Rigveda, it was then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee – a big backer of the space programme – who chose the name Chandrayaan. The PM had said this would reflect India’s emergence as an economic power

India is all set to create history today with its Chandrayaan-3 Moon mission.

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s lander Vikram is slated to touch down near the Moon’s south pole at 6.04 pm.

The success will make India just the fourth country to do so – after the United States, the former Soviet Union and China – and the first to reach the uncharted south pole of Earth’s only natural satellite.

But have you ever wondered about the origins of India’s Moon missions and how they got the name Chandrayaan?

Let’s take a closer look:

  Origins of Moon mission

 As per Hindustan Times, the idea of India first carrying out a lunar mission was broached in 1999.

This came after talks with the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1999 as well as discussions within the Astronautical Society of India the next year.

The ISRO, based on the recommendations of such experts, then formed the National Lunar Mission Task Force.

This task force, comprising top scientists and technologists, debated the feasibility of a Moon mission as well as spelled out its goals.

The panel then unanimously recommended that India carry out a lunar mission.

In November 2003, the Centre approved the ISRO proposal for the first Moon Mission, as per Hindustan Times.

  PM changes Somayaan to Chandrayaan

As per Deccan Chronicle, scientists in 1999 had picked out the name ‘Somayaan’ from a Sanskrit verse in the Rigveda:

“O Moon! We should be able to know you through our intellect. You enlighten us through the right path.”

But then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee – a big backer of the space programme – had different ideas.

As Dr K Kasturirangan, then ISRO chairman, recalled, “Vajpayee said the mission should be called Chandrayaan, and not Somayaan, as the country has emerged as an economic power, and will make many exploratory journeys to the Moon."

“It took four years to plan the mission, and another four years to implement it,” Kasturirangan added.

As per Hindustan Times, Vajpayee in 2003, giving India’s 56th Independence Day speech from Red Fort, announced the Chandrayaan-1.

“Our country is now ready to fly high in the field of science. I am pleased to announce that India will send her spacecraft to the moon by 2008. It is being named Chandrayaan,” Vajpayee stated.

Chandrayaan-1 was sent into orbit on 22 October, 2008, while Chandrayaan-2 was launched on 22 July, 2019.

Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 and its objectives are to demonstrate safe and soft-landing on the lunar surface, roving on the Moon, and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.

Chandrayaan-2 had failed in its lunar phase when its lander ‘Vikram’ crashed into the surface of the Moon following anomalies in the braking system in the lander while attempting a touch down on 7 Septembe, 2019.

The Rs 600 crore Chandrayaan-3 mission was launched on 14 July onboard Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM-3) rocket, for a 41-day voyage to reach near the lunar south pole.

The soft-landing is being attempted days after Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the Moon after spinning out of control.

  With inputs from agencies

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India's lunar mission reaches a successful conclusion

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India's lunar mission went into sleep mode on Monday following two weeks of exploration on the Moon. The landing near the Lunar South Pole marks a major milestone for the nation's space program.

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Chandrayaan-4's landing site on the Moon revealed

I ndia's ambitious Chandrayaan-4 mission, aimed at bringing back lunar rocks and soils to India, will attempt a landing close to the Shiv Shakti Point on the Moon's surface, according to Nilesh Desai, Director of the Space Applications Centre (SAC). 

The information was revealed during a recent presentation by Desai on the Indian Space Research Organisation's (Isro) future lunar exploration plans.

The Shiv Shakti Point, the location of Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander's touchdown , is a site of significant scientific interest due to its proximity to the Moon's south pole and the presence of permanently shadowed regions that could harbour water ice deposits.

By landing near this area, Chandrayaan-4 will have the opportunity to study and potentially retrieve samples from these scientifically valuable regions. Desai stated that the mission will have an operational life of one lunar day, which is approximately 14 Earth days.

This limited timeframe is due to the harsh conditions on the lunar surface, where extreme temperature variations and lack of sunlight during the lunar night pose significant challenges for long-term operations.

Chandrayaan-4 will be a complex mission involving multiple launches and spacecraft modules. Isro plans to launch two separate rockets – the heavy-lift LVM-3 and the workhorse PSLV – to carry different payloads for the mission.

This approach is a first for Isro and highlights the mission's ambitious nature.

The mission's primary objective is to collect lunar samples and bring them back to Earth for detailed scientific analysis. If successful, India will become the fourth nation to achieve this feat, following the United States, Russia, and China.

Chandrayaan-4 will consist of five spacecraft modules : a propulsion module, a descender module for landing, an ascender module to lift off from the lunar surface, a transfer module to navigate the return journey, and a re-entry module to safely deliver the lunar samples to Earth.

The landing site near Shiv Shakti Point presents unique challenges due to the rugged terrain and steep slopes in the region. Isro will need to employ precise landing techniques and advanced navigation systems to ensure a successful touchdown.

With Chandrayaan-4, India aims to further its lunar exploration program and contribute to the global scientific understanding of the Moon's composition, formation, and potential resources.