Chandrayaan-3: What is ISRO’s ‘Plan B’ if landing faces anything ‘abnormal’

New Delhi: With Chandrayaan-3 Lander Module (LM) set for touchdown this evening at 6.04 PM near the South Polar region, India’s lunar mission will create history and achieve an unparalleled milestone, which only few others have achieved.

The nation is on the cusp of creating history and with successful landing of Vikram Lander, India will become only the fourth nation after Russia, China & US to have done this.

Notably, this is India’s second attempt in its ambitious lunar mission in past 4 years. Earlier in 2019, India sent its Chandrayaan 2 mission and it almost accomplished it before veering off the scheduled path in the last moments and thus failing in its mission.

Chandrayaan-3 is the follow-up mission to Chandrayaan-2 and its objective is to study the Moon surface on South Polar region and identify prospects of life on the Earth satellite. Over next 14 days (1 lunar day), the rover will conduct in-site scientific experiments.

What is ISRO’s backup plan, if mission gets ‘out of hand’

India has come a long way since its first Moon Mission in 2008. Chandrayaan-2 missed its desired objectives as the lander ‘Vikram’ crashed into Moon surface in 2019. Now, with Rs 600 crore target, Chandrayaa-3 mission has completed its 41-day voyage and about to land at south lunar pole today.

Scientists at ISRO have been extra careful & cautious in maneuvering the lander & rover as it attempts soft landing today. The soft-landing will be attempted during sunrise at the designated lunar surface after internal checks in the Lander and if there appears any ‘abnormality’ in health parameter of lander, the landing will be deferred till August 27.

Hours ahead of Lander’s touchdown, the question on everybody’s mind is what will happen in last 17 minutes as that will be the deciding factor of mission’s success. Another big challenge, as per ISRO officials, is reducing
the velocity of lander and then re-orienting it from horizontal to vertical position. And, lastly, as the rover will disembark Lander to land on Moon’s surface, the prospects of lunar dust would pose a threat to its smooth operation.

Major focus of Chandryaan-3 is to explore & study the South Polar region of the Moon, as this region is believed to have high possibility of water.