India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission will take the country’s space science in a new direction, to new heights. India first discovered from Chandrayaan-1 that there is water on the surface of the moon. Later Chandrayaan-2 and now this mission is an attempt to take it all forward.
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Senior Space Scientist Dr. Narendra Bhandari said that Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3 were designed to fulfill the objectives of Chandrayaan-1. In Chandrayaan-1 we discovered water at the South and North Poles. Chandrayaan-2 was designed to observe water content and minerals. A rover and a lander were installed in it. Chandrayaan-1 had only an orbiter. The orbiter is still working. Using it we have sent rover and lander of Chandrayaan-3. The lander has contacted Chandrayaan-2’s orbiter. Now when he lands, he will pursue the search for water.
PRL Director Anil Bharadwaj said that the information that will be obtained from the Chandrayaan-3 mission. Then we will talk about Chandrayaan-4. This is the mission of India and Japan. Our idea is, let us go to regions where the sun’s rays do not reach. This is because these are the areas where we can get more water. Working on Chandrayaan-4 to study it. If the landing is successful, we can think of many types of missions.
Chandrayaan-3 took four years to build. ISRO scientists continued to work on this project even during the Covid pandemic. A team of about a thousand engineers and scientists worked day and night on this mission.
Less than 700 crore rupees have been spent to complete this mission. This amount is less than the cost of making the recently released film Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer spent around Rs. 830 crores has been spent and another recently released film Barbie is around Rs. 1200 crores, which is almost double the cost of Chandrayaan-3.
It is a matter of pride for all of us that India is working on and thinking of many such space missions. We are sure that on Wednesday, learning from our mistakes, the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover will land gently on the lunar surface under the Chandrayaan-3 mission.