Chandrayaan-3 in Moon’s dominant orbit: ISRO

BENGALURU: Researchers from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday shared the latest update on the Chandrayaan-3 mission. The ISRO team said the Propulsion Module (PM) of Chandrayaan-3 has entered the Moon Sphere of Influence (MSI), the region around the moon where gravity is at the optimum, which affects all objects around it. ISRO said the PM entered the MSI on November 4, and at 7.23 UT on November 6, the first lunar flyby event was reported. This is outside Indian Deep Space Network’s (IDSN) visibility range of 3740km from the Moon’s surface. The teams added that the second subsequent flyby event was visible from the IDSN on November 11. Here, the closest distance from the Moon’s surface was noted to be 4537km at 23.18 UT. “Chandrayaan-3’s PM is expected to exit the Moon’s Sphere of Influence on November 14,” ISRO scientists said.The aim of the Chandrayaan-3 mission is to demonstrate safe and soft landing on the Moon’s surface, besides Rover roving on the Moon and to conduct in-situ experiments. The satellite was launched on-board the LVM3 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, on July 14, 2023. After landing on the Moon on August 23, the PM was operated in its lunar orbit at an altitude of nearly 150km till October 2023. The PM was then relocated to a high-altitude Earth-bound orbit by executing Trans-Earth Injection (TEI) manoeuvres in October 2023.



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