All eyes on ISRO as country eagerly awaits launch of Chandrayaan 3
Sriharikota, (AP) (PTI): As the clock ticks for ISRO's high-profile launch of the year, the Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission, all eyes are on the country's space agency whose scientists are keen to taste success with a soft landing on lunar surface and put the country in an elite club of nations that have accomplished the challenging task.
'Fat boy' LVM3-M4 rocket will carry Chandrayaan-3 on Friday as part of the country's ambitious moon mission. The Indian Space Research Organisation will be launching the hugely anticipated mission from this spaceport at 2.35 pm on Friday. The soft landing on moon's surface is planned for late August.
Chandrayaan-2 failed to achieve the desired soft landing on the moon surface in 2019, leaving the ISRO team dejected. Images of an emotional then ISRO chief K Sivan being consoled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was present to achieve the rare feat, remains vivid in the memory of many.
Scientists at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, after investing many hours of hardwork, now aim at mastering the technology of soft-landing on the surface of the moon. A success would make India only the fourth country to achieve the feat after the United States, China and the former Soviet Union.
Chandrayaan-3 is the third lunar exploration mission ready for take off in the fourth operational mission (M4) of LVM3 launcher. ISRO is crossing new frontiers by demonstrating soft-landing on the lunar surface by its lunar module and demonstrating roving on the lunar terrain, the space agency said.
The 25.30 hour countdown for the launch is underway.
The mission is expected to be supportive to future interplanetary missions.
Chandrayaan-3 mission consists of an indigenous propulsion module, lander module and a rover with an objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for inter-planetary missions.
The largest and heaviest LVM3 rocket (formerly GSLV MkIII), fondly called as 'fat boy' by ISRO scientists for its heavylift capability, has completed six consecutive successful missions.
Friday's mission is the fourth operational flight of LVM3 which aims to launch the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into a Geo Transfer Orbit.
The launch window has been fixed for July, similar to that of Chandrayaan-2 mission (July 22, 2019) because the earth and moon would be closer to each other during this period of the year.
Friday's mission follows Chandrayaan-2 where scientists aim to demonstrate various capabilities including reaching the orbit of the moon, making a soft-landing on the lunar surface using a lander, and a rover coming out of the lander to study the surface of the moon.
According to scientists, around 16 minutes after lift-off, propulsion module is expected to get separated from the rocket and would orbit the earth for about 5-6 times in an elliptical cycle with 170 km closest and 36,500 km farthest from earth moving towards the lunar orbit.
The propulsion module along with the lander, after gaining speed would proceed for an over a month long journey towards reaching the orbit of the moon until it goes 100 km above the lunar surface.
After reaching the desired position, the lander module would begin its descent for a soft landing on the south pole region of the moon and this action is expected to take place on August 23 or 24, scientists at ISRO said.
The moon's south pole region has been chosen because the Lunar South Pole remains much larger than that at the North pole. There could be a possibility of presence of water in permanently shadowed areas around it.
The significance about Chandrayaan-3 mission, unlike its unsuccessfu predecessor, is that the Propulsion Module has a payload -- SHAPE -- Spectro- polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth to study earth from lunar orbit.
ISRO said the SHAPE is an experimental payload to study the spectro-polarimetric signatures of the Earth in the near-infrared wavelength range.
Apart from the SHAPE payload, the Propulsion Module's main function is to carry the Lander Module from launch vehicle injection orbit to till lander separation.
The lander module after landing on the surface of the moon has payloads including RAMBHA-LP which is to measure the near surface plasma ions and electrons density and its changes,
ChaSTE Chandra's Surface Thermo Physical Experiment -- to carry out the measurements of thermal properties of lunar surface near polar region and ILSA (Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity) to measure seismicity around the landing site and delineating the structure of the lunar crust and mantle.
The Rover, after the soft-landing, would come out of the lander module and study the surface of the moon through its payloads APXS - Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer - to derive the chemical composition and infer mineralogical composition to further enhance understanding of lunar surface.
Rover, which has a mission life of 1 lunar day (14 Earth days) also has another payload Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) to determine the elemental composition of lunar soil and rocks around the lunar landing site, ISRO said.
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England sticking with Key, McCullum and Stokes despite Ashes humbling
London (AP): England is not sacking anybody following the 4-1 Ashes loss in Australia.
A review of the tour by the England and Wales Cricket Board, announced within hours of the final match in January, was concluded on Monday. Firing people would “be the easy thing to do,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said but he insisted, "This is not the time to throw everything out."
Managing director Rob Key, coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes kept their jobs after the best England side to go to Australia in 14 years lost the Ashes in 11 days with two games to spare.
“Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That's not the route that we're going to take,” Gould said. “I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward.”
Gould previously was the chief executive of Bristol City soccer club and said the ECB would not follow the same route as soccer's hire-and-fire culture.
“Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership ... it's not like football where there's a single point of failure or success with a manager," he said. He added the ECB would not “select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign.”
The main criticisms of England's tour were poor preparation, player misbehavior, and selection mistakes.
At a press conference at Lord's, Gould and Key said McCullum and Stokes have not had a “bust up,” they did not want McCullum to “completely change” but “to evolve,” the behavior of some players was “unprofessional,” there will be more consequences for underperforming, and a commitment to “better long-term planning” ahead of major test series.
Some changes were already implemented for the Twenty20 World Cup, where England reached the semifinals. Gould implied that performance saved McCullum.
Key acknowledged that England supporters would be disappointed to see the management team go unpunished.
“I know people want punishment and that people then should be sacked for that,” Key said. “That doesn't mean we don't feel like we've gone through some serious pain: Brendon, myself, Ben. It's been as tough a time as I think I've had.”
