‘Statio Shiv Shakti’ approved as name of Chandrayaan-3 landing site
Context:
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) working group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved the name “Statio Shiv Shakti” for the landing site of Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander.
- Earlier, PM Modi has announced that the point where the Chandrayaan-3 lander touches down on the lunar surface would be named Shiv Shakti.
Relevance:
GS-03 (Space technology)
Facts for Prelims:
- International Astronomical Union (IAU):
- The IAU plays a main role in naming planetary features, including the Moon’s surface points.
- It has 92 member countries.
- Headquarters: Paris, France.
Chandrayan-03:
- 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 was the second attempt of ISRO after Chandrayaan-2.
- The Lander Module of Chandrayaan-3 carrying the Lander, Vikram and Rover, Pragyan, made the historic soft landing on the surface of the Lunar South Pole on August 23, 2023.
- It was launched by using the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (LVM3) on 14th July 2023 from Sriharikota.
- Chandrayaan-3 consists of an indigenous Lander module (LM), Propulsion module (PM) and a Rover.
- The Lander will have the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the Rover.
- The Rover would carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility.
- The main function of PM is to carry the LM from launch vehicle injection till final lunar 100 km circular polar orbit and separate the LM from PM.
- The launcher identified for Chandrayaan-3 was LVM3 M4 which will place the integrated module in an Elliptic Parking Orbit (EPO) of size ~170 x 36500 km.
LVM3:
- LVM3 is the new launch vehicle of ISRO.
- It boasts capability to place the modules into the GTO (Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit) in a cost-effective manner.
- It is a three-stage launch vehicle with two solid strap stages and one core liquid stage.
- The Launcher, LVM3 M4, placed the integrated Modules in an Elliptic Parking Orbit of size approx. 170 x 36500 km (a GTO).
Objectives of Chandrayaan-3:
- To demonstrate Safe and Soft Landing on Lunar Surface.
- To demonstrate Rover roving on the moon.
- To conduct in-situ scientific experiments.
