At present, it is only 4313 kilometers away from the moon. In late August, India's lunar rover, Luna 3, will challenge the lunar orbit | moon | landing
·After entering an elliptical lunar orbit, the lunar rover "Luneshan-3" completed a lunar orbit reduction maneuver, reducing the distance from the apogee from 18074 kilometers to 4313 kilometers. After the completion of this lunar orbit reduction maneuver, ISRO will conduct three more operations to gradually reduce the spacecraft's altitude from the lunar surface. India is expected to attempt a soft landing on the South Pole surface of the Moon on August 23rd.
After completing a lunar orbit reduction maneuver, the spacecraft's apogee distance decreased from 18074 kilometers to 4313 kilometers.
The third lunar exploration mission of India, Lunche-3, is only 4313 kilometers away from the moon and is expected to attempt a soft landing on the surface of the South Pole of the moon on August 23.
After entering an elliptical lunar orbit on August 5th, the Indian Space Research Organization announced on August 7th the completion of a lunar orbit reduction maneuver, reducing the distance of the spacecraft's apogee from 18074 kilometers to 4313 kilometers. "The spacecraft successfully completed the planned orbit reduction maneuver, and the re ignition of the engine brought it closer to the lunar surface."
According to The Times of India, after the completion of the lunar orbit reduction maneuver, ISRO will conduct three more operations to gradually reduce the spacecraft's altitude from the lunar surface. The next operation to further lower the orbit is scheduled for August 9th. Before the lander can detach from the propulsion module, the entire spacecraft must enter a circular orbit 100 kilometers high from its current elliptical orbit around the moon, and then attempt to separate the lander Vikram and lunar rover modules from the propulsion module.
After separation, ISRO is expected to attempt a soft landing on the surface of the South Pole of the Moon on August 23, achieving India's first lunar landing. If the landing is successful, India will become the fourth country, after the United States, Soviet Union, and China, to make a soft landing on the surface of the moon.
The Lunar Ship 3 is India's third lunar exploration mission and also India's second attempt to send a probe to the moon. Previously, India's first lunar exploration mission, Lunche-1, was launched in October 2008. Eleven years later, India's second lunar exploration mission, Luna 2, was launched on July 22, 2019, with plans to land the lunar rover at the South Pole of the Moon. But on September 7, 2019, the lander of "Lunchcraft 2" crashed on the lunar surface a few minutes before the expected soft landing, and India's first attempt to land on the moon failed.
On July 14th, the lunar rover "Lunzhou-3" took off from the Indian Space Research Organization's LVM3 rocket at the Sadish Dawan Space Center in India, with plans to challenge the moon landing again. After landing, it will conduct 14 days of scientific activities on the surface of the moon. Among them, the 2-meter-high Vikram lander carries four payloads for studying lunar earthquakes, how the lunar surface allows heat to pass through, plasma environment, and more accurate measurement of the distance between Earth and the moon. The two payloads on the lunar rover will use X-rays and lasers to study the composition of the lunar surface.
