Chandrayaan-3: ISRO Releases Images of Moon's Far Side As Mission Enters Final Stage

As it inches closer to its final destination, Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 on Friday released riveting images of the moon’s far side captured by a camera on the spacecraft.

The images, released by ISRO on X (formerly Twitter), shows the far side area of the moon and was taken by the Lander Hazard Detection and Avoidance Camera (LHDAC).

“This camera that assists in locating a safe landing area — without boulders or deep trenches — during the descent is developed by ISRO at SAC,” it wrote.

This comes as the spacecraft entered its last step with a powered descent towards the south pole of the moon on Sunday.

The Lander Module (LM) of the spacecraft successfully underwent the second and final deboosting operation on Sunday. This has now the reduced the LM orbit to 25 km x 134 km.

“The module would undergo internal checks and await the sun-rise at the designated landing site,” ISRO said.

India’s third mission in its lunar exploration series was launched successfully on July 14 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

The spacecraft — entered the lunar orbit on August 5 — is scheduled to make a soft landing on the moon’s surface on August 23 at 6:04 pm.

Earlier images 

Before this, a set of visuals were taken after the Lander Module got separated from the Propulsion Module of the spacecraft on August 15.

The pictures showed the craters on the Moon’s that were marked on the photographs released by ISRO as ‘Fabry’, ‘Giordano Bruno’ and ‘Harkhebi J’.

The journey so far

Chandrayaan-3’s Lander Module — carrying the rover inside — successfully separated from the Propulsion Module on August 17.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) posted on X, “Thanks for the ride, mate! said the Lander Module (LM). LM is successfully separated from the Propulsion Module (PM). LM is set to descend to a slightly lower orbit upon a deboosting planned for tomorrow around 1600 Hrs IST.”

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The Vikram Lander of ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 successfully underwent its first deboosting operation at 4 pm on August 18, reducing the module’s orbit to 113 km x 157 km.

ISRO had said that the LM is in ‘normal’ health and has successfully undergone a deboosting operation.

“LM successfully underwent a deboosting operation that reduced its orbit to 113 km x 157 km. The second deboosting operation is scheduled for August 20, 2023, around 0200 Hrs. IST,” the space agency said