English: Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. It consists of a lander and rover configuration. It was launched by LVM3 from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota. The propulsion module carried the lander and rover configuration to a 100 km lunar orbit.

Rover payloads: Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of landing site.

Chandrayaan-3 consists of a lander module (LM), propulsion module (PM) and a rover with the objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for interplanetary missions. The lander will have the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the rover which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mission. The lander and rover have scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the lunar surface. The main function of PM is to carry the LM from launch vehicle injection to a final 100 km lunar circular polar orbit and separate the LM from the PM.

The mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3 are to demonstrate a safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, to demonstrate the rover navigating on the Moon, and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.

The overall specifications for Chandrayaan-3 are provided below:

• Mission life (lander & rover): one lunar day (~14 Earth days)
• Landing site (prime): 4 km x 2.4 km 69.367621 S, 32.348126 E
• Rover science payloads:
  • Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS)
  • Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS)
• Two module configuration:
  • Propulsion module (carries lander from launch injection to lunar orbit)
  • Lander module (rover is accommodated inside the lander)
• Rover mass: 26 kg
• Rover power generation: 50W
• Communication:
  • Propulsion module: communicates with IDSN
  • Lander module: communicates with IDSN and rover. Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is also planned for contingency link.
  • Rover: communicates only with lander.

The objectives of the scientific payloads planned on the Chandrayaan-3 rover are provided below:

• Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS): Qualitative and quantitative elemental analysis to derive the chemical composition and infer mineralogical composition to further our understanding of the lunar surface.
• Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS): To determine the elemental composition (Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, Fe) of the lunar soil and rocks around the lunar landing site.

(Cleaned up and transparent version of Chandrayaan-3_Rover.webp)