INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
BENGALURU: With just about a fortnight to go before Isro attempts to soft-land Vikram, the Chandrayaan-3 lander on the lunar surface, the
space agency has carried out a detailed analysis of traffic around Moon, not just for now but also for the coming years
And managing this traffic will be a continuous process for Isro given that the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, which entered the lunar orbit in 2019,
as of July 31 has already had to perform at least three collision avoidance manoeuvres (CAMs) to mitigate critical close approaches with
other spacecraft.Read AlsoChandrayaan-3 just 1k-km from lunar surfaceBengaluru: Isro Wednesday guided Chandrayaan-3 even closer to the lunar
lunar orbit insertion (LOI) carried out on Sunday
landerIsro chief S Somanath has said that they are planning a proper touchdown of Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander even in the event that its
sensors or engines fail.Explaining the logic, Somanath said that Vikram has been designed in a way that it can make a soft landing on the
lunar surface even if all theCould Russia's Luna-25 beat Chandrayaan-3 in race to be first on south pole of Moon?After a gap of nearly 50
years, Russia is planning to launch a lunar mission on August 11 and enter the race to become the first nation to land a rover on the Moon's
south pole -- a potential source of water to support a future human presence there
India has a head start with its Chandrayaan-3,Lowering Chandrayaan-3 from 100 km orbit very critical phase: ISRO chiefThe most critical
phase of Chandrayaan-3 will begin when the spacecraft starts moving closer to the moon from the 100 km circular orbit, Isro chief S Somanath
said on Monday.The orbit determination process of Chandrayaan-3 will be planned between August 9 and 17 to place the spacecraft in a 100
kmChandrayaan-3 only 4,313km from Moon, says IsroIsro late on Sunday completed its first Moon-bound manoeuvre a day after Chandrayaan-3 was
guided into an elliptical lunar orbit
challenging and fascinating ventures of humankind and continues to capture the imagination of generations
Over the years, several space-faring nations have undertaken numerous missions to explore most of the planets in the solar system, their
are the most explored and also comparatively more crowded planetary bodies at present, the agency said more intensified activities around
Moon are foreseen in the next few years due to the renewed interest in lunar exploration, heralded by Artemis missions for return to Moon
scientific explorations, upcoming ventures will likely involve multiple actors of diverse interests, including those primarily driven by
resource utilisation for commercial purposes
A better understanding of the environment is needed to formulate reasonable mitigation practices to avoid close-approach threats in
Therefore, based on the lessons learnt while operating in the near-Earth regime, it is interesting and desirable to undertake studies
related to close approaches in view of the increasing number of objects in the lunar orbits.Tracking deep space objectsObservation and
tracking of deep space objects are inherently more complex compared to that in the near-Earth regime, Isro said, adding that this was mainly
due to the vast distance involved between the object and the observer which introduces considerable latency, signal attenuation and
Typical active techniques involve range and doppler measurement, very long baseline interferometry (VLBI)/Delta Differential One-way Ranging
(DOR), and laser ranging with retro-reflectors
Optical transponders have also been demonstrated for missions like the Messenger, Mars Global Surveyor, and Hyabusa-2 which can give better
gravity, gravity of Sun and Earth, and Sun radiation pressure
perturbations due to Earth and Sun causes orbit eccentricity (without any change in the semi-major axis) to increase
As a result, the perilune altitude is gradually lowered leading to eventual impact with the lunar surface
other lunar orbiting crafts, eclipse avoidance etc
and are highly suitable to host lunar gateways
Several forthcoming missions may also be placed in similar orbits, but given the vast spatial extent of such orbits (far larger than the GEO
belt), no congestion is anticipated in the foreseeable future
Chandrayaan-1 (2008) are the two defunct spacecraft, while all the other orbiters have been either moved out of the moon-bound orbital
(lander and rover) will be in lunar orbit of 100km by August 16 and will be landing on the lunar South pole of the moon by August 21-23,
LRO, KPLO, and Chandrayaan-2 orbiter as their orbital regimes in Low Lunar Orbit (LLO) overlap
said.Pointing out that effective co-ordination happens among agencies to avoid critical conjunctions, Isro added that for the Chandryaan-3
mission, the propulsion module is expected to orbit around Moon in a circular LLO of about 150km altitude for many years to come
Under the ambit of Isro System for Safe and Sustainable Space Operations Management (IS4OM) critical analysis of each of the lunar-bound
manoeuvres for orbit lowering are being performed to assess potential risks of close approaches with the other lunar orbiters before
international organisations like Inter Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC), which include studies related to future evolution
of space object environment in cislunar and lunar region to bring out specific guidelines and best practices for space operations to be
sustainable in these regions.WatchChandrayaan-3's Vikram nears landing, only 1,437 Km away from Moon
