Chandrayaan-3: What Is Biggest Challenge In Landing Of Spacecraft On Moon, Here's What Expert Says

As the Chandrayaan-3 mission's lander module is all set to touch down on the moon on August 23, Space strategist P K Ghosh shared the biggest challenges for its landing. The expert said Chandrayaan 3 on the lunar surface is to get the spacecraft from a horizontal to a vertical position.

"One of the biggest things is that it has got to get the spacecraft from a horizontal position to a vertical position. That isn't easy. All these aspects have to be looked into," P K Ghosh told ANI.

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On Sunday, India's lunar mission successfully reduced the orbit of its Lander Module (LM), moving closer to the moon. The Lander Module, which comprises the lander ‘Vikram' and rover ‘Pragyan', is scheduled to make a soft landing on the moon's south pole on Wednesday.

"Deboosting or retro firing is a process to enable the spacecraft to reduce its speed. You must realise that it is travelling at a tremendous speed more than 6000 kilometres per hour and then it has got to reduce it to near zero, nearly 1 meter/second…," Ghosh said while explaining the process of deboosting.

The 'Vikram' lander module of the Chandrayaan-3 mission successfully disengaged from the propulsion module on Thursday. The spacecraft completed essential deboosting procedures and sank to a slightly lower orbit.

Meanwhile, speaking on Russia's Luna-25, Ghosh said this shows that one should not take anything for granted in space exploration.

"It just goes on to show that you can never take anything for granted in space exploration. Any of the smallest things, if it goes wrong, then it can lead to a disaster. I feel sorry for them," he said. "Russia or Soviet Union are pioneers in space exploration. This is most unfortunate," he added further.

(With ANI Inputs)