Space India’s third moon exploration missions ISRO plans to launch the third moon mission in aboard the LVM3 (formely GSLV MK-III) rocket from Sriharikota. The Chandrayaan-3 lander will bear the name Vikram (after Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the Indian space programme) and the rover, Pragyan. A propulsion module will carry the lander-rover configuration to a 100-km lundar orbit. Once the Vikram lander module makes it safely to the moon, it will deploy Pragyan, “which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility”. The lander, rover and the propulsion module will have payloads for performing experiments designed to give scientists new in-sights into the characteristics of earth’s lone natural satellite. The lander will have four payloads: Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive lonosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA) Chandra’s Surface Thermo physical Experiment (ChaSTE) Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) LASER Retroreflector Array (LRA). The six-wheeled rover will have two payloads: The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) LASER Induced Break-down Spectroscope (LIBS) In addition to these, there will be one payload on the propulsion module, the Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE).
