Good news came before soft landing of Chandrayaan 3, 150 kg fuel left in propulsion module, will get this benefit

Even before ISRO attempted to soft-land Vikram (lander) on August 23, there has been some good news from Chandrayaan-3. In fact, ISRO chairman S Somnath said that with more than 150 kg of fuel left, the propulsion module, which was initially expected to have a life of three-six months, is now expected to live for several years.

ISRO Chairman S Somnath confirmed this, saying, "It has a lot of fuel, much more than our expectations. It has a lot of fuel left because everything was very nominal on the way to the Moon. We have almost All the margin-left is about 150+kg."

The propulsion module was loaded with 1,696.4 kg of fuel at launch on 14 July, and all heavy lifting was completed between 15 July and 17 August before separation from the landing module. So far, some minor improvements in mission-specific maneuvers may have consumed a small amount of fuel. However, there is no accounting of how much fuel was consumed in each of these operations.

With 150+ kg of fuel still left in the module, it can orbit the Moon for much longer than the initial design estimate of three-six months. ISRO says that this time can revolve around the moon for several months/years. This means that the scientific instrument—the Spectro-Polarimetry of Habitable Planetary Earths (SHAPE)—will get more time to study the lunar surface for Earth-like characteristics.

  The landing module, comprising Vikram and Pragyan (the rover), would have attempted a second deboost maneuver after the STOI was printed at 2 am on Sunday. If this is successful, Vikram will be all set for a soft landing. During the Chandrayaan-2 mission, an estimated fuel requirement of over 749 kg was required at the end of the maneuver. The Chandrayaan-3 module is expected to consume the same amount of fuel or slightly more fuel in this stage.

"Unless some correction is required after the manoeuvre, Sunday's de-boost will be the last operation. If the de-boost goes as planned, the next operation will be on August 23, when we will attempt a landing," Somnath said. " Sunday's maneuver will aim to reduce Vikram's perilune from the current 113 km x 157 km to about 30 km and Apollon's to about 100 km. During Chandrayaan-2, the second deboost placed the landing module in an orbit of 35 km x 101 km.

ISRO Chairman S Somnath said that the biggest challenge in getting Chandrayaan's lander module to land on the moon would be to fold it before landing. He told that when the lander will land on the surface of the moon, it will have to be vertical by turning it at 90 degree Celsius before landing. If this is done smoothly and successfully, then the chances of landing on the lunar surface will increase.