ISRO To Reduce Orbit Of Chandrayaan-3 At 11 Tonight, A Day After It Entered Moon’s Orbit
Chandrayaan-3: ISRO will reduce the orbit of Chandrayaan-3 today i.e. Sunday, August 6 at around 11 pm. Right now, Chandrayaan is moving in such an elliptical orbit in which its minimum distance from the moon is 164 Km and its maximum distance is 18074 Km. After a journey of 22 days, Chandrayaan entered the Moon’s orbit at around 7:15 pm on Saturday evening.
The speed of the vehicle was reduced so that it could be captured in the gravity of the moon. To reduce the speed, ISRO scientists turned the face of the vehicle and fired the thrusters for 1835 seconds, i.e., for about half an hour. This firing was started at 7:12 pm. After firing, Chandrayaan reached the orbit of 164 Km x 18074 Km.
Giving information about the mission, ISRO wrote in X post, ‘MOX, ISTRAC, this is Chandrayaan-3. I feel the lunar gravity. Chandrayaan-3 has been successfully placed in the Moon’s orbit. Now on August 6, 2023, at around 11 pm, Chandrayaan’s orbit will be reduced. Chandrayaan will change its orbit 4 times before landing on 23 August.
Thrusters Fired When Chandrayaan Was Closest To Moon In Orbit
ISRO informed that the command for retro-burning at Perilune was given from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX), ISTRAC, Bengaluru.
Perilune is the point at which a vehicle in lunar orbit is closest to the Moon.
The thrusters of a retro-burning vehicle are said to fire in the opposite direction.
Thrusters are fired in the opposite direction to slow down the speed of the vehicle.
Chandrayaan-3 Left Earth’s Orbit For Moon On August 1
Chandrayaan-3 was sent from the Earth’s orbit towards Moon on August 1 at around midnight. This is called a translunar injection. Earlier, Chandrayaan was moving in such an elliptical orbit, whose minimum distance from the earth was 236 km and the maximum distance was 1 lakh 27 thousand 603 km.
Engines Were Briefly Ignited For Translunar Injection
For translunar injection, scientists from ISRO’s headquarters in Bengaluru started Chandrayaan’s engine for some time. Engine firing was done when Chandrayaan was at a distance of 236 km from the Earth. ISRO said- Chandrayaan-3 is moving towards the Moon after completing its orbit around the Earth. ISRO has placed the spacecraft in the translunar orbit.
Lander And Rover Will Conduct Experiments On The Moon For 14 Days
Chandrayaan-3 has Lander, Rover and Propulsion Module. The lander and rover will land on the Moon’s South Pole and conduct experiments there for 14 days. The propulsion module will study the radiation coming from the Earth by staying in the Moon’s orbit. Through this mission, ISRO will find out how earthquakes occur on the lunar surface. It will also study the lunar soil.
Chandrayaan-3: The Journey So Far
On July 14, Chandrayaan-3 was launched into an orbit of 170 km x 36,500 km.
The orbit was increased to 41,762 km x 173 km for the first time on 15 July.
On 17 July, the orbit was increased for the second time to 41,603 km x 226 km.
On 18 July, the orbit was increased for the third time to 5,1400 km x 228 km.
On 20 July, the orbit was increased for the fourth time to 71,351 x 233 Km.
On 25 July, the orbit was increased for the fifth time to 1.27,603 km x 236 km.
The Moon left Earth’s orbit at midnight between July 31 and August 1.
On August 5, Chandrayaan-3 entered the Moon’s orbit of 164 Km x 18074 Km.
Chandrayaan-3 will land on the moon on 23 August.