Chandrayaan 3 India’s moon lander Vikram aims for historic landing

Country's third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 is set to land on the moon today around 6:04 PM. It will embark upon the most difficult phase of its journey when the velocity of the lander will be reduced and descent will be initiated from a distance of around 25 kms over the Moon. Considered the most challenging part, the lander Vikram with Rover Pragyan will endure the most adverse conditions on Moon.

However, the touchdown will create history as India will become the first country to land near the South Pole and the fourth country to soft-land on the surface of the Moon.

As daylight breaks over Moon, Chandrayaan 3 lander with the help of cameras, sensors and an altimeter that measures height and Doppler that measures velocity will navigate to the surface of the



Moon.

On safe landing, the solar panel of the Vikram Lander will unfold and a ramp will come down for the Pragyan rover to roll down. The six-wheeled Pragyan boldly displays our national tricolour and ISRO logo. As it touches down on the surface of the Moon, it will leave imprints of the tricolour and ISRO logo on the lunar soil. The sunrays will be available over the Moon for 14 days and solar-powered lander and rover will be sending scientific data on thermal properties, atmosphere, chemical compositions, seismic measurements and the structure of the lunar crust. 

Vikram has three payloads and Rover two payloads. Chandrayaan 2 orbiter will relay data received from Vikram Lander to the ISRO Command centre in Bengaluru.