India
Moon: PM Modi congratulates Isro for bring back propulsion module, calls it ‘technology milestone’ | India News
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NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated Isro for bringing back the propulsion module of Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft from the lunar orbit to the Earth’s orbit, calling it “technology milestone”.
Responding to Isro’s post on the achievement, Modi stated on X, “Congratulations @isro. Another technology milestone achieved in our future space endeavours includes our goal to send an Indian to the Moon by 2040.”
A day before, the space agency posted on X, “Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Ch-3’s Propulsion Module (PM) takes a successful detour! In another unique experiment, the PM is brought from Lunar orbit to Earth’s orbit.An orbit-raising manoeuvre and a trans-Earth injection manoeuvre placed PM in an Earth-bound orbit.”
On August 23, the Vikram lander made its historic touchdown on the south pole side of the Moon, making India the first country to land on the uncharted territory of the Moon and subsequently, the Pragyan rover was deployed on the lunar surface. The scientific instruments on board the lander and rover operated continuously for one lunar day (14 Earth days) as per the defined mission life and completed the mission.
For the Propulsion Module (PM), the main objective was to ferry the lander module from the geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) to the final lunar polar circular orbit and separate the lander, it said. After the separation, the Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (Shape) payload in the PM was also operated, the space agency said. The initial plan was to operate the payload for about three months during the mission life of the PM. The precise orbit injection by LVM3 rocket and optimal earth or lunar burn manoeuvres resulted in the availability of over 100 kg of fuel in the PM after over one month of operations in the lunar orbit, it added.
Isro said it was then decided to use the available fuel in the PM to derive additional information for future lunar missions and demonstrate the mission operation strategies for a sample return mission. To continue SHAPE payload for Earth observation, it was decided to re-orbit the PM back to the Earth orbit.The mission plan was worked out considering the collision avoidance such as preventing the PM from crashing on to the Moon’s surface or entering into the Earth’s Geo belt at 36,000 km and orbits below that. Considering the estimated fuel availability and the safety to GEO spacecraft, the optimal Earth return trajectory was designed for October, the agency said.
“The first manoeuvre was performed on October 9, 2023, to raise the apolune altitude to 5112 km from 150 km, thus increasing the period of orbit from 2.1 hrs to 7.2 hrs. Later, considering the estimate of available propellant, the second manoeuvre plan was revised to target an Earth orbit of 1.8 lakh x 3.8 lakh km,” the agency said. “The main outcomes of the return manoeuvres carried out on CH3 PM related to future missions include the planning and execution of a trajectory and manoeuvres to return from the Moon to Earth, the development of a software module to plan such a manoeuvre and its preliminary validation,” it stated further.
Responding to Isro’s post on the achievement, Modi stated on X, “Congratulations @isro. Another technology milestone achieved in our future space endeavours includes our goal to send an Indian to the Moon by 2040.”
A day before, the space agency posted on X, “Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Ch-3’s Propulsion Module (PM) takes a successful detour! In another unique experiment, the PM is brought from Lunar orbit to Earth’s orbit.An orbit-raising manoeuvre and a trans-Earth injection manoeuvre placed PM in an Earth-bound orbit.”
On August 23, the Vikram lander made its historic touchdown on the south pole side of the Moon, making India the first country to land on the uncharted territory of the Moon and subsequently, the Pragyan rover was deployed on the lunar surface. The scientific instruments on board the lander and rover operated continuously for one lunar day (14 Earth days) as per the defined mission life and completed the mission.
For the Propulsion Module (PM), the main objective was to ferry the lander module from the geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) to the final lunar polar circular orbit and separate the lander, it said. After the separation, the Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (Shape) payload in the PM was also operated, the space agency said. The initial plan was to operate the payload for about three months during the mission life of the PM. The precise orbit injection by LVM3 rocket and optimal earth or lunar burn manoeuvres resulted in the availability of over 100 kg of fuel in the PM after over one month of operations in the lunar orbit, it added.
Isro said it was then decided to use the available fuel in the PM to derive additional information for future lunar missions and demonstrate the mission operation strategies for a sample return mission. To continue SHAPE payload for Earth observation, it was decided to re-orbit the PM back to the Earth orbit.The mission plan was worked out considering the collision avoidance such as preventing the PM from crashing on to the Moon’s surface or entering into the Earth’s Geo belt at 36,000 km and orbits below that. Considering the estimated fuel availability and the safety to GEO spacecraft, the optimal Earth return trajectory was designed for October, the agency said.
“The first manoeuvre was performed on October 9, 2023, to raise the apolune altitude to 5112 km from 150 km, thus increasing the period of orbit from 2.1 hrs to 7.2 hrs. Later, considering the estimate of available propellant, the second manoeuvre plan was revised to target an Earth orbit of 1.8 lakh x 3.8 lakh km,” the agency said. “The main outcomes of the return manoeuvres carried out on CH3 PM related to future missions include the planning and execution of a trajectory and manoeuvres to return from the Moon to Earth, the development of a software module to plan such a manoeuvre and its preliminary validation,” it stated further.
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