India’s Chandrayaan-3 On Track For Historic Moon Mission

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is gearing up for an exciting moment in its 54 years of operation: this Wednesday, 23 August, they will see the Chandrayaan-3 making its long-awaited Moon landing.

The spacecraft was launched on 14 July, and is the space agency’s third attempt at a lunar mission. Ahead of its landing, the probe took several images last Saturday, 19 August, revealing many craters, shadows and other geographical features from the far side of the Moon.

The photos were captured by the Chandrayaan-3’s Lander Hazard Detection and Avoidance Camera, which was designed to assist the Vikram lander’s descent onto the lunar surface. Once the module successfully lands, the Pragyan rover that it’s carrying will be engaged to observe and demonstrate the craft’s capabilities on the lunar orbiting body.

Special focus has been dedicated to the south pole of the Moon, where water ice has been detected from orbit. Such a resource holds a great deal of promise for possible future human settlements on the Moon.

Previous Chandrayaan missions between 2008 and 2019 ended in lost contact with the probe and the rover crash-landing, respectively. A successful landing this time round will be the first step in an arduous and lengthy data-collection process.

Image Credit: Source