Context: The successful hop experiment of the Vikram lander was never a part of the original Chandrayaan-3 mission and it came as a surprise to everyone.
Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key facts about Chandrayaan mission series.
Chandrayaan-3 Hop Experiment
- Chandrayaan-3 lander (Vikram), made a soft landing on the Moon in August 2023. After the soft landing on the Moon, Vikram still had some propellant left.
- With the unused propellant, ISRO decided to simply lift the lander again and place it nearby.
- The engines of Vikram were reignited and it rose to a height of 40 cm before landing around 30-40 cm away from its original landing site.
- The Vikram lander ended up carrying out an unexpected hop experiment on the Moon.
- Significance:
- In the process, ISRO demonstrated its capability to get the lander to fire its engines and produce the thrust to lift it off the ground.
- This capability is key to future lunar missions which will involve return journeys to Earth.
About Chandrayaan-3 Mission
- ISRO’s third lunar mission launched in 2023.
- Launch vehicle: Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3)
- The lunar mission consisted of an indigenous propulsion module, lander module (Vikram), and a rover (Pragyan).
- The Vikram lander touched down on the Moon on August 23, 2023. It successfully demonstrated ISRO’s end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the Moon's surface.
- Chandrayaan-3 made one of the closest approaches to the moon's South Pole.
- The landing site is located about 600 kilometers from the South Pole of the Moon, on the near side of the Moon.
- Pragyan rover operated for one lunar day (approximately 14 Earth days). It aimed to collect lunar samples, do in-situ experiments and send data to Vikram lander, to transmit it back to Earth for comprehensive analysis.
- Virtual Launch Control Centre at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre played a vital role in continuous real-time monitoring of the launch activities from SHAR.
- International Astronomical Union has approved the name “Statio Shiv Shakti” for the landing site of Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander.
- India became the fourth country to have landed a spacecraft on the Moon—after the United States, Russia, and China. India became the first country to have made a soft landing near the lunar south pole.
Also Read: Chandrayaan-4 Mission