Chandrayaan-3: Lander successfully completes crucial test

Feb. 20, 2023

Why in News?

According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the lander for the Chandrayaan-3 mission successfully completed the crucial EMI-EMC (Electro - Magnetic Interference/ Electro - Magnetic Compatibility) test at the U.R. Rao Satellite Centre, Bengaluru.

What’s in Today’s Article?

What Exactly is the Chandrayaan-3 Mission?

Following Chandrayaan-2, where a last-minute glitch led to the failure of the lander's soft landing attempt after a successful orbital insertion, another lunar mission for demonstrating soft landing was proposed.
Chandrayaan-3 is a planned 3rd lunar exploration mission by the ISRO to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.
Unlike Chandrayaan-2, it will not have an orbiter and its propulsion module will behave like a communications relay satellite.
Chandrayaan-3 interplanetary mission has three major modules: the Propulsion module, Lander module, and Rover.
The propulsion module: It has Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and polarimetric measurements of Earth from lunar orbit.
Lander payloads:
- Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature;
- Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) for measuring the seismicity around the landing site;
- Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate the plasma density and its variations, etc.
Rover payloads: Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of the landing site.

News Summary Regarding Successful Testing of Chandrayaan-3 Lander:

The Chandrayaan-3 mission is slated to be launched later this year by the GSLV MkIII (Launch Vehicle Mark 3 - LMV3) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.
According to the space agency, the EMI-EMC test is conducted for satellite missions to ensure the functionality of the satellite subsystems in the space environment and their compatibility with the expected electromagnetic levels.
This test is a major milestone in the realisation of the satellites, as the mission’s complexity calls for establishing radio-frequency (RF) communication links between the modules.