The Chandrayaan 3 lander module, which is set to attempt soft landing on the Moon on August 23, has established two-way communication with the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Monday. The space agency on X wrote formally: Ch - 2 - Orbiter welcomed Ch - 3 LM. A two-way communication between the two is established. The space agency added that its mission operations complex in Bengaluru has now more routes to reach the lander module, which comprises lander Vikram and rover Pragyan.
The live telecast of the landing event will begin at 5:20 PM, a spokeswoman for the National Weather Service said in a statement.
The space agency shared images of the Moon's far side area captured by the Lander Hazard Detection and avoidance camera LHDAC on Monday... This camera, which assists in locating a safe landing area - without boulders or deep trenches - during the descent is developed by ISRO.
ISRO is a few days away from creating history if it succeeds in the soft-landing of Chandyrayaan - 3 on the Moon's south pole, an unchartered territory on the moon's surface.
The first spacecraft mission to land on the South Pole in the last 47 years ended in failure after its mission spacecraft Luna 25 lost its connection during a pre-landing maneuver and crashed into the Moon.
After landing on the moon, Chandrayaan - 3's lander will spend 14 days on the Moon. The lander payloads onboard will monitor near-surface plasma ions and electrons density and its changes over time, carry out the measurements of thermal properties of the lunar surface near the polar region, and record seismicity around the landing site and delineating the structure of the lunar crust and mantle.
To explore the moon's surface, the rover payloads will carry out qualitative and quantitative elemental analysis, derive the chemical composition, and infer mineralogical composition. The payload will be determined by the elemental composition Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, Fe of lunar soil and rocks surrounding the moon landing site.