They say sky is the limit, but what after that?
Well, this is what India and its scientists in the Indian Space Research Organisation, i.e. ISRO are planning to learn more under the Chandrayaan 3 mission. Shattering all records and going past all the naysayers, Chandrayaan 3 is a lunar exploration mission done towards knowing more about our Moon and its composition.
However, the topic of interest with Chandrayaan3 is the history behind it. Only a few know, that it is the successor of the Chandrayaan 2 program which was brought to an end, owing to a software glitch which led the lander to crash, bringing the mission to an abrupt end. These missions are done with the aim to learn more about the feasibility of life, owing to the presence of lunar water in the craters of the moon and its land composition. Alongside, another point of note that the ISRO is planning to research is the evolving atmosphere of the Moon. The launch consists of 3 components – a propulsion module, a lander named Vikram and a rover named Pragyan. Fun fact, the rover was named after Vikram Sarabhai who was the first chairman of ISRO.
These 3 key components form the crux of the mission with the propulsion module being responsible for carrying the configuration of the lander and the rover till the lunar orbit of 100 km. Then, the lander as the name suggests, is responsible for the soft and safe landing of the rover that is carried alongside by the propulsion module. The lander was slightly tweaked and reworked, as one of the learnings from the failure of Chandrayaan 2 by strengthening its structural rigidity, and working on the software towards improving the connection abilities for better control, in times of need. Finally, the rover is responsible for the final leg of the mission, wherein the rover will roam around the South Pole of the moon where the presence of water molecules was discovered in 2008 by Chandrayaan 1, to get a better idea about the aforementioned topics. In tandem and keeping in mind the previous missions, ISRO opted for a failure-based design, which aims to achieve a successful landing even in the case of failure of certain components, or algorithm failure.
With Chandrayaan 3, ISRO plans to create history by aiming to achieve a soft landing on the South Pole of the moon, rather than previous missions by countries and space organizations across the world that landed close to the lunar equator. Chandrayaan 3 also is one of the most cost-effective lunar missions, with an estimated budget of Rs615 crore, with the lander and rover being designed to effectively work for 14 Earth days, that is a single lunar daylight period. The team behind Chandrayaan 3 was led by S Somnath who is the chairman of ISRO, P Veeramuthuvel who is the project director, S Unnikrishnan who is the Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, and M Sankaran who is the director of the U R Rao Space Satellite Centre. This team consisted of scientists, engineers, technical assistants, and vehicle directors who are highly qualified and experienced. To understand patterns, and establish greater communication, ISRO leverages the AI-powered Artificial Neural Networks, which are trained by algorithms by the name of ‘back propagation’.
If you’re still reading, I assume that you’re passionate about space and if you’d like to explore career options in space research or AI, some courses that you can pursue are a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, or a B.Tech in Avionics Engineering, M.Tech in Electronic and Computer Science, a PhD in Physics, the opportunities are endless. These courses are offered by top colleges across the world, such as the Imperial College in London, the University of Sydney in Australia, MIT in the USA, University of California in Berkeley amongst other topics.
To know more about how you can be a part of ISRO one day, fulfil your dreams of space exploration and know more about not just ours, but also how other planets work by choosing a career option, contact Admissify for guidance as your study abroad consultant.
Chandrayaan 3 stands true and is a testament to the proverb, “You either win, or you learn!” Wishing the team and the millions of young scientists and astrophysicists the best of luck from Admissify!
Avinash Singh is a study abroad consultant with over 10 years of experience helping students achieve their academic goals. He is an expert in the US, Australian, German, and Canadian education systems and has helped hundreds of students secure admission to top universities around the world. In his spare time, Avinash enjoys traveling, hiking, and spending time with his family. He is also an avid reader and loves to learn new things.
