Chandrayaan 3’s Lander Vikram Shares Breathtaking Lunar Images Ahead of Soft Landing

New Delhi, August 19, 2023: India’s ambitious lunar mission, Chandrayaan 3, reached a remarkable milestone as its lander module, Vikram, successfully maneuvered itself closer to the moon, capturing awe-inspiring images that showcase the moon’s rugged beauty.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) shared these captivating visuals on X (formerly known as Twitter), offering a glimpse of the moon’s craters in stunning detail.

The images were captured by the Lander Imager (LI) Camera-1, offering a breathtaking montage that includes various moon craters, with a notable spotlight on the Giordano Bruno crater – one of the moon’s youngest large craters. The LI Camera-1 also revealed the Harkhebi J crater, boasting a diameter of around 43 km. These images were taken after the successful detachment of the lander module from the spacecraft’s propulsion module on the preceding day.

In a playful yet symbolic tweet, ISRO imagined a conversation between the lander module and the spacecraft, stating, “Thanks for the ride, mate.” With its recent trajectory adjustments, the Lander Module is now positioned in an orbit where its closest point to the moon, Perilune, is 30 kilometers, while the farthest point, Apolune, is 100 kilometers.

The forthcoming stages of the mission are poised to be equally enthralling. The Vikram Lander is primed for a “soft landing” on the moon’s south polar region on August 23. Simultaneously, the propulsion module will continue to orbit the moon, focusing on studying Earth’s atmosphere and collecting essential data on exoplanets eligible for habitability considerations.

Upon successful lunar touchdown, the ‘Pragyaan’ rover will descend from the Vikram Lander, leading to a remarkable visual exchange between the lander and rover. The rover’s subsequent operations will encompass comprehensive data collection, analyzing the moon’s surface composition and geology, contributing to substantial advancements in lunar research.

With Chandrayaan 3’s significant strides towards its goal, India’s space ambitions stand illuminated, promising novel insights into lunar landscapes and igniting a fervor for space exploration.