Context

India’s third moon exploration mission named ‘Chandrayaan-3’ is going to get launched by mid-July 2023 by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

• Earlier, ISRO had lost the Chandrayaan-2 lander-rover configuration and the payloads aboard them after ‘Vikram’ crashed on the lunar surface while attempting a soft landing.

About ‘Chandrayaan-3’:

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to retain the names of the Chandrayaan-2 lander and rover for their Chandrayaan-3 equivalents as well.
• The Chandrayaan-3 lander will bear the name ‘Vikram’ (after Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the Indian space programme) and the rover, ‘Pragyan’.
• According to the information, the 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’ ‘‘which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility.
• Key features:
  • The lander, rover and the propulsion module will have payloads for performing experiments designed to give scientists new insights into the characteristics of moon.
  • The lander will have four payloads —
    • Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA),
    • Chandra’s Surface Thermo physical Experiment (ChaSTE),
    • Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) and
    • The LASER Retroreflector Array (LRA).
  • The Six-wheeled rover will have two payloads — the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and the LASER Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS).
  • In addition to these, there will be one payload on the propulsion module, the Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (SHAPE).

India and Moon Exploration missions:

• India has a long and rich history of space exploration, with a focus on low-cost, high-impact missions, specifically to the moon.
• India's first moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, was launched in October 2008 with the goal of studying the lunar surface and looking for evidence water.
• ISRO deployed the Moon Impact Probe, which landed on the moon surface and collected data on the composition and density.
• Chandrayaan-1's success inspired ISRO to launch a number of other lunar missions, notably Chandrayaan-2 in 2019.

Indian Space research Organisations (ISRO):

• ISRO is the space agency under the Department of Space of Government of India, headquartered in the city of Bengaluru, Karnataka.
• Its vision is to harness space technology for national development, while pursuing space science research and planetary exploration.