Why in News?

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to retain the names of the Chandrayaan-2 lander (Vikram) and rover (Pragyan) for their Chandrayaan-3 equivalents as well.
• Following Chandrayaan-2, where a last-minute glitch led to the failure of the lander's (Vikram) soft landing attempt after a successful orbital insertion, another lunar mission (Chandrayaan-3) for demonstrating soft landing was proposed. 

What’s in Today’s Article?

• The Chandrayaan-3 Mission
• Chandrayaan-3 Payloads
• How will the Mission be Implemented?

The Chandrayaan-3 Mission:

• Chandrayaan-3 ("mooncraft") is a planned 3rd lunar exploration mission by the ISRO to demonstrate end-to-end capability in -
  • Safe landing (through the lander Vikram - after Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the Indian space programme) and
  • Roving (through the rover Pragyan) 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.
• ISRO plans to launch the third moon mission in mid-July aboard the LVM3 (formerly GSLV Mk-III) rocket from Sriharikota.

Chandrayaan-3 Payloads:

• 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: It will have 4 payloads -
  • Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA) to study the temporal evolution of electron density in the Lunar ionosphere.
  • 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.
• 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.
• 

 How will the Mission be Implemented?

• A propulsion module will carry the lander-rover configuration to a 100-km lunar orbit.
• Once the ‘Vikram’ lander module makes it safely to the moon, it will deploy ‘Pragyan’.
• Pragyan will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility.