Third Lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 on July 13

Chennai, June 28 ,2023: The launch of India’s third Lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 will take place using the heaviest rocket LVM-3 from the spaceport of Sriharikota at 2.30 p.m. on July 13.
ISRO sources said the launch is expected to take place from the Second Launch Pad. The GSLV-Mk3 launcher (LVM-3) will place the Chandrayaan-3 integrated module in an Elliptic Parking Orbit (EPO) of size 170 x 36500 km.
The payloads of Chandrayaan-3 had already been taken to the SHAR Range, for mandatory before integrating them with the Launch vehicle.
This will be a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 whose lander-rover configuration and the payloads aboard them after ‘Vikram’ crashed on the lunar surface while attempting a soft landing on the Lunar surface.
Chandrayaan-3 will demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.
ISRO in its website said “Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.”
It consists of Lander and Rover configuration. It will be launched by LVM3 from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota.
The propulsion module will carry the lander and rover configuration till 100 km lunar orbit.
The propulsion module has Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and Polari metric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit.
The Lander payloads were Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA), Chandra’s Surface Thermo physical Experiment (ChaSTE), Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA),Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA), while Rover paylods are Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS), Laser Induced Breakdown
Spectroscope (LIBS) Propulsion Module–Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) ChaSTE will measure the thermal conductivity and temperature; ILSA is for measuring the seismicity around the landing site;
Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate the plasma density and its variations.
A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA is accommodated for lunar laser ranging studies.Rover payloads Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of landing site.
Chandrayaan-3 consists of an indigenous Lander module (LM),Propulsion module (PM) and a Rover with an objective of
developing and demonstrating new technologies required for Inter planetary missions.
The Lander will have the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the Rover which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility.
The Lander and the Rover have scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the lunar surface. The main function of PM is to carry the LM from launch vehicle injection till final lunar 100 km circular polar orbit and separate the LM from PM.
Apart from this, the Propulsion Module also has one scientific payload as a value addition which will be operated post separation of Lander Module.
The mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3 was to demonstrate Safe and Soft Landing on Lunar Surface, demonstrate Rover roving on the moon and To conduct in-situ scientific experiments.
To achieve the mission objectives, several advanced technologies are present in Lander such as, Altimeters, Velocimeters, Inertial Measurement, Propulsion System, Navigation, Guidance & Control (NGC) and Hazard Detection and Avoidance.
As part of demonstrating these advanced technologies in earth condition, several Lander special tests were carried out successfully.
The tests included Integrated Cold Test for the demonstration of Integrated Sensors & Navigation performance test using helicopter as test platform, Integrated Hot test – for the demonstration of closed loop performance test with sensors, actuators and NGC using Tower crane as test platform Lander Leg mechanism performance test on a lunar simulant test bed simulating different touch down conditions.