File picture of Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander.
| Photo Credit: ISRO
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) landed on the Moon on August 23, 2023. This monumental achievement firmly cemented India’s position as one major players in the space community. Since then Chandrayaan-3 has found sulphur, a temperature difference of 50°C between the surface and 10 cm below the soil and even landed safely after the Vikram lander ‘hopped’ 30-40 cm away. Here are some video clips that capture the journey of Chandrayaan-3.
August 5 | A view of the moon as Chandrayaan-3 enters lunar orbit
On August 5, Chandrayaan-3 achieved a crucial milestone by completing Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI). This was the third time that ISRO successfully inserted a spacecraft into the lunar orbit. The video clip shows the lunar surface as the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft enters the orbit.
August 15 | Lander Position Detection Camera captures images of the moon
This video clip shows a range of pictures of the rugged lunar surface captured by Chandrayaan-3’s Lander Position Detection Camera while in the moon’s orbit.
August 17 | The moon as seen by the Lander Imager Camera 1
The video clip shows the Chandrayaan-3 gliding over the moon. The images in the video was captured by the Lander Imager Camera 1 right after the Propulsion module separated from the Lander Module on August 17. The video also showed the craters on the moon’s surface such as the Fabry crater and Giordano Bruno.
August 20 | The moon as seen by Lander Imager Camera 4
The Lander Imager Camera 4 aboard the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft captures the pockmarked lunar surface as it orbits closer to the moon. Portions of the spacecraft is also visible in the video.
August 23 | Chandrayaan-3 lands on the Moon
On August 23, Chandrayaan-3 finally descended on the lunar surface. The video clip shows the footage of the Vikram lander on the Moon’s surface followed by the deployment of the rover named, Pragyan, as it rolled down the lander ramp and executed a turn on the lunar surface. The video clip also shows a simulation of the Chnadrayaan-3 spacecraft soft landing on the moon as a visual depiction.
August 29 | Chandrayaan-3 conducts experiments
On August 29, ISRO released two more videos showing the instruments onboard the spacecraft conducting experiments. The video clip also shows the Vikram lander camera recording Pragyan, as the rover rotates on the lunar surface.
This particular video captured by lander shows Pragyan operating an Alpha Particle X-ray spectrometer which is used to analyse the chemical composition of a sample.
