It is a proud moment for India as all the countrymen are looking forward to the successful landing of the Chandrayaan 3 which was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 14 this year. Post-landing the Chandrayaan-3 is expected to investigate the elemental composition of the Earth’s only natural satellite, its surface plasma environment, lunar seismicity, and thermophysical features.

While this is India’s third lunar mission and second attempt at a soft landing on the moon, the mission entered the lunar orbit one month after launch and the lander and rover are scheduled to touch down on the lunar surface on August 23.

Earlier, India faced the partial failure of the Chandrayaan-2, whose lander Vikram and rover Pragyaan crashed on the Moon’s surface in the early hours of September 7, 2019. Vikram was about 335 meters (0.335 km) from the Moon’s surface on the day of the 2019 lunar landing when the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) lost communication with it. The issue occurred during the “Fine braking phase” of Vikram’s final approach (an altitude of 5 km to 400 m), which started while the lander was 5 km from the lunar surface, according to the preliminary data.

The lander’s green line began to deviate off course when it was just over 2 km in altitude and finally stopped at a location that was obviously below 1 km in altitude and somewhere around or below 500 m. 

Why Chandrayaan-2 failed?

Days before the launch of Chandrayaan 3, ISRO Chairman S Somanath had commented on the incident that happened in 2019 and had said, “The primary issues were, one, we had five engines which were used to give the reduction of the velocity, which is called the retardation. These engines developed higher thrust than what was expected.” He said that the additional thrust caused errors to build up, which in turn made the lander less stable during the ‘camera coasting phase’ of the soft landing.

This was an instance of the second problem. “All the errors got accumulated, which was on the higher side than what we had expected. The craft had to make very fast turns. When it started to turn very fast, its ability to turn was limited by the software because we never expected such high rates to come,” Somanath added.

VIDEO | "The ability to handle parameter variation or dispersion was very limited in Chandrayaan-2. So, instead of success-based design, we are doing a failure-based design in Chandrayaan-3. What all can fail, and how to protect it — this is the approach that we have taken," says… pic.twitter.com/GnpHAUbyt2

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 10, 2023

The third issue arose when the lander increased its speed despite being near the surface because the landing place was far away. According to Somanath, this was partially caused by the landing spot’s relatively tiny size (500 m × 500 m). “In a nutshell, the problem in Chandrayaan-2 was that the ability to handle parameter dispersion was very limited,” he was quoted as saying.

However, India’s first deep space mission, Chandrayaan-1 played a crucial role in discovering the molecules of water on the moon. An Indian PSLV rocket carried the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft into Earth orbit on October 22, 2008. On November 8 of that year, Chandrayaan-1 successfully entered orbit around the Moon after a series of orbit-raising maneuvers.

How India’s first deep space mission, Chandrayaan-1 discovered water

Chandrayaan-1 fired its engines several times at exact intervals over the following four days to achieve a circular orbit of 100 kilometers (62 miles), which would allow it to examine the Moon closely with its 11 instruments, about half of which were provided by NASA and European space agencies. On August 29, 2009, communication with the orbiter was lost, but the mission’s main goals, including finding water on the Moon, were accomplished.

In an interview, Srinivasa Hegde, the project’s director, recalled how Dr. K Kasturirangan was responsible for the mission’s conceptualization. Kasturirangan wanted the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which he led from 1994 to 2003, to play an insignificant role in India’s goal of becoming a superpower. This sowed the seeds for carrying out more challenging missions. Everyone seemed to agree with the proposal of a Moon orbiter when it was presented.

At the time, ISRO already had satellites with geostationary orbits that could accommodate a large amount of fuel. The only modification needed was to adapt a geostationary satellite for the Moon because the fundamental infrastructure was already in place. The PSLV rocket from India, according to preliminary estimates, could launch an Earth-bound orbit beyond which the fuel on the spacecraft could potentially be utilized to travel to the Moon and perform orbital capture. Chandrayaan-1 was an all-around logical advancement of ISRO’s capabilities.

Finding water on the Moon was a primary scientific objective when ISRO was planning Chandrayaan-1. However, it was NASA’s Moon Mineralogical Mapper (M3) that helped the Chandrayaan-1 identify water and differentiate between ice, water, and vapor. The discovery that our Moon contains water was made definitively by M3, which also revealed that the majority of the water has been concentrated at the poles of the Earth’s natural satellite.

Earth to Moon: 146 missions so far, first began in 1958

Notably, though several missions led by India to the Moon have made the countrymen and the world altogether proud, many other countries and space organizations (chronologically) like the Soviet Union, the United States, Japan, the European Space Agency, China, Luxembourg, Israel, Italy, South Korea and the United Arab Emirate have also conducted Moon missions with specific objectives.

The urge to get connected to the Moon began in the year 1958 when the United States first sent spacecraft named Pioneer 0 beyond the Earth’s orbit. However, the mission which was launched in the month of August 1958 ie exactly 65 years ago today failed due to a gearbox malfunction resulting in a first-stage explosion. Since then the Earth has made 146 launches including the failed ones to the Moon. The number also includes flybys, impact probes, orbiters, landers, rovers, and crewed missions.

Russia successfully made contact with the Moon in 1959

After repeated 10 attempts including 6 by Russia and 4 by the US, Russia became the first country to force a human-made object to make contact with another celestial body. Luna 2, also known as Lunik 2, was the sixth spacecraft in the Soviet Union’s Luna program to be launched to the Moon. Its original name was the Second Soviet Cosmic Rocket. It was the first spacecraft to touch down on the Moon’s surface on September 12, 1959, using a Luna 8K72 s/n I1-7B rocket. The said spacecraft emitted a sodium gas cloud so that the movement of the spacecraft could be seen visually in addition to the radio transmitters returning operational data to Earth.

While Luna 2 was traveling to the Moon, it was equipped with five different types of instruments to perform a variety of tests. Determining the electron spectrum of the Van Allen radiation belt, a region composed of extremely charged particles, was the main scientific goal of Luna 2. The magnetometer and radiation detectors were looking for magnetic and radiation fields on the moon that resembled the Van Allen radiation belt that circles Earth. Although it confirmed earlier observations of the Van Allen radiation belts that were taken from Luna 1 around the Earth, Luna 2 was unable to detect any form of radiation belts circling the Moon.

The abrupt cessation of Luna 2’s radio transmissions on September 14 indicated that it had impacted on the Moon, making it the first spacecraft to make only one such contact with a solar system body.

The Soviet Union’s Luna 2 mission, the first of many deliberate Moon crashes was successful. Similar effects were experienced with the subsequent US-built Ranger missions. To note, while Luna 2 was the first to make contact with the other celestial body, Russia’s Luna 9 managed to be the first one to make a soft landing on the lunar surface.

Luna 3 returned the first image of the far side of the Moon

Out of 146, the next successful space mission to the Moon was also conducted by Russia Luna 3 Soviet spacecraft which was launched using a Luna 8K72 rocket in the year 1959. It was the third Soviet spacecraft to be sent out to the Moon’s proximity and the first mission to take pictures of the Moon’s far side. The historic, never-before-seen views of the far side of the Moon generated excitement and fascination when they were published around the world, despite the fact that they returned exceptionally poor-quality images. Only two dark, low-lying regions, later nicknamed as the Sea of Moscow and the Sea of Desire, could be seen in these views, which contrasted greatly with the adjacent side’s mountainous landscapes.

29 photographs were captured in all by Luna 3, covering 70% of the far side of the Moon. The spacecraft started spinning once the photography was finished, flew above the Moon’s north pole, and then turned back towards Earth. A total of 17 watchable but substandard photos from Luna 3 were sent to the nation as it got closer to the Earth. These photos were ultimately made public all across the world.

Ranger 7 and Ranger 8 by the US managed to capture clearer images

In later years, the United States launched the Ranger series of spacecraft which carried television cameras with wide and lower angles to capture and transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface to the Earth. Ranger 7 accomplished the goal by transmitting over 4,300 photographs while Ranger 8 transmitted 7,137 lunar surface photographs to the Earth before these crashed into space. The main objective of these space missions was only to get clear images of the Moon’s surface which helped the country select landing sites during the Apollo mission. The performance of these spacecraft was recorded to be excellent.

Luna 9 by Russia first landed on the Moon

After the list of other successful Moon missions by the US (Ranger 3), and Russia (Zond 3), Luna 9 launched by Russia again became the first spacecraft to make a successful landing on the surface of the Moon. On February 3, 1966, Luna 9, a human-free space mission of the Soviet Union’s Luna program, touched down on the moon’s surface. Seven hours after landing, the spacecraft was able to capture up-close images of another celestial body from its surface. The photographs included a panoramic view of the lunar surface as well as views of the horizon and adjacent boulders. The spacecraft made its final known contact on February 6, 1966.

Luna 10 became the first one to orbit around the Moon

In March 1966, Russia launched another spacecraft named Luna 10 which became the first-ever spacecraft to orbit the Moon. It became the first artificial satellite of the only natural satellite of the Earth. Luna 10 conducted considerable research while in lunar orbit, acquiring crucial information on the density of micrometeoroids, the strength of the Moon’s magnetic field, its radiation bands, and the chemical composition of lunar rocks which were discovered to be similar to basalt rocks on Earth. The first indication of mass concentrations, which are dense regions below mare basins that modify lunar orbital patterns, was perhaps its most significant discovery. Luna 10 conducted 460 lunar orbits and revealed 219 active data transmissions before radio signals disconnected on May 30, 1966.

Apollo 11 by the US made humans walk on the Moon

Several space missions directed to the Moon continued to be undertaken by the US until Zond 5 launched by Russia made it the first Earth life to travel to and around the Moon in the year 1968. However, Apollo 11 spacecraft launched by the United States became the first one to make humans take a walk on the surface of the Moon.

On July 20, 1969, Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module Eagle Pilot Buzz Aldrin successfully landed on the lunar surface, and six hours and 39 minutes afterwards, Armstrong made history by becoming the first person to walk on the Moon. Aldrin joined him around 19 minutes later and they spent roughly two and a half hours together exploring the location they had called Tranquilly Base upon landing.

21.5 kg of lunar material was recovered by Armstrong and Aldrin back then as they returned to Earth. The fifth crewed mission of NASA’s Apollo program, Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Centre on Merritt Island, Florida, on July 16.

First Robotic probe to land on the Moon

While the US later carried out several crewed landing missions, Russia in the year 1970 launched Luna 16 to establish its first mechanized probe on the surface of the Moon. Luna 16 was the first robot to land on the Moon and bring back lunar soil for analysis on Earth. The sample, weighing 101 grams (3.56 ounces), had been brought back from Mare Fecunditatis, a region on Moon renamed. It was the third mission overall to return lunar samples, and it was the Soviet Union’s first mission to do so successfully.

In 1993, three extremely small (0.2 gram) samples of Luna 16 soil were sold at auction by Sotheby’s for USD 442,500. On November 29, 2018, Sotheby’s resold the samples for USD 855,000. Sotheby’s is an American multinational corporation having its headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world’s largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectables.

Japan’s first space mission to the Moon

In the year 1990, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan launched its Hiten named spacecraft to carry out its first robotic lunar probe after Russia and the US. Developed largely to test and validate technologies for upcoming lunar and planetary missions, Hiten was Japan’s Earth-orbiting satellite. The spacecraft was launched near the Moon with the small satellite it was carrying by the name of Hagoromo.

Before being purposefully crashed onto the Moon on April 10, 1993, Hiten was placed into a highly elliptical Earth orbit and traveled over the Moon ten times. This Japanese spacecraft with two modules was intended to fly by the Moon and release an orbiter. It was the first lunar mission undertaken by Japan and the first robotic lunar probe since the Soviet Luna 24’s flight in 1976.

Europe Space Agency in the year 2003 joined the race

The European Space Agency (ESA) developed the Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology (SMART-1) spacecraft as a scientific demonstrator for a mission to the Moon to test solar-electric propulsion and other deep space capabilities.

It became the first European spacecraft to orbit the Moon. 

The study of permanently lit polar mountain summits and potentially ice-containing dark regions of the lunar surface comprised the mission’s second phase. It was launched on September 27, 2003, and in September 2006, it was intentionally crashed onto the Moon.

China’s Chang’e mission, named after the Moon goddess in Chinese mythology

In the year 2007, China also joined the world’s efforts to study the moon by sending its first ever uncrewed Chinese lunar-orbiting spacecraft Chang’e 1. The spacecraft was launched on October 24, 2007, from Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The spacecraft entered the lunar orbit on November 5 and sent the first snap of the natural satellite on November 26 that year.

The mission’s main technical goals were to build a basic engineering system for lunar exploration, launch China’s first lunar orbiter, validate the technology required to fly lunar missions, begin scientific exploration of the Moon, and gain experience for future missions. Obtaining three-dimensional stereo images of the lunar surface, examining the distribution and abundance of elements there, measuring the thickness of the lunar soil, assessing its resources for helium-3 and other elements, and investigating the environment between the Moon and Earth were additional scientific goals.

As a result, the spacecraft obtained information that was eventually utilized to produce an exact and detailed 3-D map of the lunar surface. Additionally, Chang’e 1 made history as the first lunar mission to use a microwave radiometer to do passive, multi-channel, remote sensing of the moon.

The spacecraft operated until March 1, 2009, after which it was removed from orbit. After Chang’e 1, China continued to send 4 more spacecraft to the moon all of which successfully attained the slated objectives. China recently in the year 2020 sent its fifth lunar exploration mission making history by becoming the third country to recover samples from the Moon after the United States and Russia.

On January 3, 2019, China’s Chang’e-4 spacecraft successfully landed on the far side of the moon and started sending images. Chang’e-4 became the world’s first to land on the lunar far side, which faces away from the earth. The landing site was in the Von Kármán crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin. China’s previous mission, Chang’e 3, had landed on the near side of the Moon. Chang’e is named after the Moon goddess in Chinese mythology. Its rover, named Yutu, continues to study the lunar far side.

In 2020, China’s Chang’e 5 mission returned to Earth with samples from the Moon. The spacecraft is now on an extended lunar orbit to test technologies.

Chandrayaan-1 by India discovered water molecules on the Earth

The Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft from India was a key component in the discovery of water molecules on the Moon. It was sent into orbit around the Moon with the intention of sending an impactor there.

The study of the Moon’s chemical, mineralogical, and photogeologic mapping was one of the goals of the research. The spacecraft also carried scientific instruments from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, and Bulgaria in addition to the five Indian tests.

The first private lunar probe was led by Luxembourg

The first privately funded lunar probe to successfully fly by the Moon was Manfred Memorial Moon Mission (4M). It was administered by LuxSpace, a subsidiary of the German multinational corporation OHB System, and was dedicated to the late Manfred Fuchs, the founder of OHB Systems, who passed away in 2014. On October 23, 2014, it was launched in conjunction with the Chinese Chang’e 5-T1 test spacecraft.

After the October 28, 2014 moon flyby, the spacecraft entered an elliptical Earth orbit and continued communicating until 11 November 2014, surviving four times more than it was intended to.

After its orbit dropped on March 4, 2022, the spacecraft and the rocket stage to which it was attached most certainly collided with the Moon’s surface. Thereby, Luxembourg became the eighth country to reach the surface of the Moon.

And, now this year in July, India launched the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft which is scheduled to make a successful landing on August 23. As reported earlier, The Chandrayaan-3 mission will send scientific equipment to the moon in order to investigate its elemental composition, surface plasma environment, lunar seismicity, and thermophysical features. 

ISRO has identified three key goals for the Chandrayaan-3 mission. These goals include accomplishing a safe and gentle landing on the Moon, displaying the rover’s mobility on the lunar surface, and performing on-site scientific studies.

Notably, India’s third lunar mission managed to capture stunning lunar surface images after entering the Moon’s orbit on August 7 this year. “The Moon, as viewed by Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft during Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) on August 5, 2023,” tweeted the Mission’s official Twitter handle.

The spacecraft also captured crucial images of the Moon on August 20, the video of which was shared by the ISRO from its official handle.

…. and
The moon as captured by the
Lander Imager Camera 4
on August 20, 2023.#Chandrayaan_3 #Ch3 pic.twitter.com/yPejjLdOSS

— ISRO (@isro) August 22, 2023

The spacecraft, mounted on GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle, successfully lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota on July 14.

Conclusion

In addition to being India’s ambitious lunar mission, Chandrayaan 3 represents a fantastic chance for the country to engage in international cooperation. Several nations and space agencies have expressed an interest in working with India to exchange knowledge, materials, and goals in the said research. This collaborative project will encourage knowledge exchange and hasten the development of lunar science.

India continues to strive for scientific excellence in space exploration, and this mission is an example of that commitment. The project’s objectives, which center on lunar exploration, technological advancements, and international cooperation, hold considerable promise for increasing our understanding of the Moon and beyond. The world is eagerly anticipating the discoveries and revelations that Chandrayaan-3 will make as it makes a safe landing scheduled on August 23 on the lunar surface.