News Excerpt:
Scientists have brought the Propulsion Module (PM) of the Chandrayaan-3 mission back into Earth orbit.
About the Propulsion Module:
- The Chandrayaan-3 mission used a light Propulsion Module (PM) instead of a full-fledged orbiter, primarily for the lander to travel to the Moon.
- The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter was used for Earth station communications.
- The PM carried the Spectro Polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) instrument and separated from the lander, carrying the Pragyaan rover.
- SHAPE is an experimental payload to look back at Earth and study the signatures that make it habitable, so as to identify habitable exoplanets.
- The PM carried the lander module (LM) from launch vehicle injection to the final lunar 100 km circular polar orbit, separating the LM from PM.
- An orbit-raising maneuver and a Trans-Earth injection maneuver placed PM in an Earth-bound orbit.
Main outcome from the return maneuvers carried out on CH3 PM related to future missions:
- Planning and execution of trajectory and maneuvers to return from Moon to Earth.
- Development of a software module to plan such a maneuver and its preliminary validation.
- Planning and execution of a gravity assisted flyby across a planets/ celestial body.
- Avoiding uncontrolled crashing of the PM on the Moon’s surface at the end of life of PM thus meeting the requirements of no debris creation.
