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The propulsion module that took an Indian spacecraft to its historic moon landing has just returned to Earth’s orbit, the country’s space agency said. The move is aimed at testing how and when the growing space force might bring back lunar soil samples.
There was more fuel left in the propulsion module than the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) expected. So the researchers decided to try to bring the module back to their hometown. agency said Monday.
And the module is now returning to Earth’s orbit.
The propulsion module, a large box-shaped unit with solar panels and a bottom-mounted engine, will be used for most of the lunar lander’s journey after the spacecraft launches in mid-July. , which propelled the lunar module for the Chandrayaan-3 mission.
After reaching lunar orbit three weeks later, the lander separated from the propulsion module and achieved touchdown on August 23. With this, India became her fourth country to land a vehicle on the moon. Until now, only the United States, China, and the former Soviet Union had achieved this feat.
The Vikram lander and the six-wheeled rover it deployed, Pragyan, went to bed on a lunar night after nearly two weeks of conducting all the scientific experiments planned for the mission. These two weeks are the period when sunlight does not reach us. surface of the moon.
Both the lander and the rover remain asleep on the lunar surface after previous attempts to wake the rover failed. If the spacecraft had woken up again, it would have been an added bonus to the mission and the mission would have been considered a complete success by the Indian Space Agency.
During that time, the propulsion module remained in lunar orbit. This component acted as a relay point, pinging data from the lander back to Earth. And this module performed her one experiment: Spectropolarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (SHAPE).
chandrayaan bonus mission
The SHAPE experiment was designed to observe Earth from lunar orbit and capture near-infrared characteristics of the home planet, which is suitable for human habitation. The study aimed to provide scientists with a blueprint for how to search for similar features, called “biosignatures,” elsewhere in the universe.
The original plan was to operate the SHAPE experiment for about three months while the propulsion module continued to rotate in lunar orbit.
But the rocket that launched the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft placed it into a very precise orbit, leaving more propellant in the propulsion module than expected.
“After more than a month of operation in lunar orbit, more than 100 kg (220 lb) of fuel is now available in the (propulsion module or PM),” the space agency said. “The decision was made to use the fuel available at the PM to derive additional information for future lunar missions and to demonstrate mission operations strategies for sample return missions.”
This means ISRO can use the information gleaned from the return of the propulsion module to plan future lunar landing missions to bring back lunar soil samples to Earth.
Similarly, India had previously tested a method to jump the Chandrayaan-3 lander moving away from the moon’s surface After landing. This amounted to a short “hop” test in which the vehicle was lifted a few centimeters off the ground. (However, this test did not attempt to return to lunar orbit or reconnect to the propulsion module.) This maneuver is an aspect of the vehicle’s design to inform future missions. (It was intended only for testing purposes.)
The propulsion module currently orbits about 96,000 miles (154,000 kilometers) above Earth, completing one orbit around the globe about every 13 days.
In a statement, the space agency said the propulsion module’s path back to Earth would “prevent PMs from impacting the Moon’s surface or entering Earth’s GEO belts in orbit at and below 36,000 km altitude. It was planned with “avoidance” in mind. ”
GEO (Geostationary Orbit) is an area of space that is home to large, expensive satellites that provide television and other communication services to people on Earth.