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The lunar rocket's name, Chandrayaan-3, is Sanskrit for "Moon vehicle".(Supplied: Indian Space Research Organisation)
India will launch its latest mission to explore the Moon as part of an effort to send humans back to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.
The Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2, and has been scheduled to launch on as early as Friday afternoon from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
It is part of the push by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) under NASA's Artemis Accords to join US-led efforts to land humans on the Moon by 2025 — 52 years after the last manned landing — and later to Mars.
The Artemis Accords will allow India to share with the US data, technology, and resources, and to work together on lunar exploration.
Here's a look at the spacecraft, its objectives and the significance behind the Chandrayaan-3 mission.
What is the significance of the mission?
If Chandrayaan-3 lands successfully, it would make India just the fourth country to land a vessel on the lunar surface, and only the third to operate a robotic rover there.Only three nations — the United States, the former Soviet Union and China — have landed spacecraft on the Moon.
To help with its space exploration development, India joined the Artemis Accords in June.
"Following two Artemis test missions, Artemis III — currently planned for 2025 — will mark humanity's first return to the lunar surface in more than 50 years," NASA said.
One of the goals of the Artemis Accords is "to make history by sending the first humans to explore the region near the lunar South Pole", NASA said.
A successful landing for Chandrayaan-3, which aims to have its rover explore the Moon's South Pole, would help further missions with the data and information it gathers from the area.
And as part of the Artemis Accords, it is hoped the mission will help the development and test work for technology that would help future interplanetary missions.
The launch also has a secondary mission — signalling India is open for business in the accelerating private sector space race, according to an analyst.
"A successful mission will add to India's global stature and bring indirect benefits on the commercial aspect of the industry," Ajey Lele, a consultant at New Delhi's Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, said.
Some of the firsts in lunar exploration. (ABC News: Jarrod Fankhauser)
It has been a while since there was this much effort going into reaching the surface of the Moon.
After the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, public and political support in the US for further lunar missions dropped significantly.
Part of that was due to the high costs of such missions, as well as major safety concerns.
In the meantime, India's space ambitions have grown and their space program has expanded.
The Artemis Accords has reinvigorated efforts to return to the Moon, and on a visit to the United States last month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden pledged to deepen collaboration in space.
India's first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 was in 2008.
It did not land on the Moon, but detected ice in the frigid shadows of craters at the lunar poles using radar.
The ISRO has also attempted to send a rover to the the Moon before.
During the Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019, the ISRO lost touch with its Vikram lunar lander as it made its final approach to the Moon's South Pole, where it was to deploy a rover to search for signs of water.
An image of the Moon taken during the Chandrayaan-2 mission. (ISRO)
The lander in the Chandrayaan-2 mission was going well until it was about 2 kilometres above the surface of the Moon.
It had blasted off from the same space centre where the Chandrayaan-3 mission is due to launch and spent several weeks making its way to the Moon.
The spacecraft and the mission
India will use a heavy lift launch vehicle to send its lunar lander and rover configuration into space.It will blast off from the surface of the Earth, and end its journey in orbit 100 kilometres above the Moon.
The lander will be mounted to the propulsion module. (Supplied: Indian Space Research Organisation)
The propulsion module will remain in lunar orbit, where it will use experimental equipment to study Earth and maintain communications with ISRO.
Spacecraft still orbiting the Moon from India's previous lunar mission — Chandrayaan-2 — will be used as a backup relay.
The lander from the latest mission will then descend from orbit to highlands near the south polar region of the Moon.
It will carry the lunar rover aboard.
NASA said the lander and rover would operate for one lunar daylight period, which is about 14 Earth days.
During that time, it will have three key missions.
According to ISRO, they are: "To demonstrate a safe and soft landing on lunar surface, to demonstrate rover roving on the Moon and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments."
ISRO said the overall goal of the Chandrayaan-3 was to develop and demonstrate new technologies required for interplanetary missions.
To safely reach the surface of the Moon, the 1,752-kilogram lander has four landing legs and four landing thrusters.
The lander uses sensors to touchdown. (Supplied: Indian Space Research Organisation)
"The lander has a number of sensors to ensure a safe touchdown, including an accelerometer, altimeters, Doppler velocimetre, star sensors, inclinometer, touchdown sensor, and a suite of cameras for hazard avoidance and positional knowledge," NASA said.
It will also be used to gather data.
Instruments to measure the temperature of the Moon's surface, seismicity near the landing site, gas and plasma in the environment, and a laser array to assess distances, which was provided by NASA, will be used.
ISRO's solar-powered, rectangular lunar rover weighs 26 kilograms and has six wheels.
Only the US has so far managed to land a manned mission on the Moon. (AP: Supplied NASA)
It will use its navigational cameras to roll from the lander down a ramp and onto the Moon.
While on the Moon, it will send information back to the lander.
The rover has two instruments to study elements found on the Moon's surface.
"The Chandrayaan-3 mission, equipped with scientific payloads on its lander and rover, will conduct in-situ studies of the lunar surface, at higher lunar latitude in the Southern lunar hemisphere," ISRO said.
India also studying the Sun
Between August and September, India will also launch its Aditya-L1 mission, the first space-based study of the Sun conducted by India."[It] will study the photons and the solar wind ions and electrons emitted by the Sun, and the associated interplanetary magnetic field, from a halo orbit," ISRO said.
Studying solar flares can help scientists predict space weather events that can cause power blackouts. (NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory)
The Sun would be observed from a place known as the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point, which lies 1.5 million kilometres inside the Earth's orbit, between the Sun and the Earth.
"Lagrangian points are where all the gravitational forces acting between two objects cancel each other out and therefore can be used by spacecraft to 'hover'," the European Space Agency said.
Scientists are hoping the Aditya L1 will provide crucial information on solar flares and mass bursts of energy from the Sun.
"A satellite placed in the halo orbit around the [first Lagrange] point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/eclipses," ISRO said.
ABC/Reuters
India to launch its latest lunar rocket as it moves towards a manned mission to the Moon
India aims to become just the fourth nation, along with the United States, the former Soviet Union and China, to land spacecraft on the Moon as it tests technology it hopes to use in future interplanetary missions.
www.abc.net.au
