Science News Updates

A 'soft landing' by the Lander on the Moon's south pole will set India apart, making it the only country to achieve this feat.

During the launch of Chandrayaan-3 on July 14, the spacecraft’s propulsion module was loaded with 1696.4 kg of fuel. After five earth-bound manoeuvres and five lunar-bound manoeuvres, the propulsion module got separated from the lander module on August 17.

Akshay Deoras, a meteorologist and research scientist from the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and the University of Reading, the UK, explains that during break-monsoon conditions

The moon lander or the lander is part of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft.

Starship consists of two elements, a spacecraft called Starship and a giant first-stage booster known as Super Heavy.  

The Lander Module comprising the lander Vikram and rover Pragyan is now ready to be lowered to an orbit that takes it closer to the moon's surface. The soft landing on the lunar south pole is scheduled at 5.47 pm next Wednesday.

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft comprises a propulsion module (weighing 2,148 kg), a lander (1,723.89 kg) and a rover (26 kg).

The rapid journey is attributed to the mission's lightweight design and efficient fuel storage, enabling it to take a shorter path to its destination.

Moving India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft closer to the moon on Wednesday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the lander module is slated for separation from the propulsion module on Thursday.

The record-breaking July continues a long-term trend of human-driven warming driven primarily by greenhouse gas emissions that has become evident over the past four decades.

The satellite, realised at U R Rao Satellite Centre here, has arrived at the ISRO's spaceport in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, the Bengaluru-headquartered national space agency said in an update on the mission.

Previously, only Jupiter was known to have megastorms. The largest storm in the solar system, a 10,000-mile-wide anticyclone called the Great Red Spot, has also decorated Jupiter's surface for hundreds of years.

As part of India’s proposed human space mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that it had successfully conducted a series of Drogue Parachute Deployment Tests.

Luna-25 took off atop a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Vostochny launch facility in Russia at 2:10 a.m. Moscow time (4:40 am IST) on Friday, TASS news agency reported.

Since 2012, NASA's Curiosity, the first rover to ever explore such ancient remains, has already detected the presence of simple organic molecules which can be formed by geological as well as biological processes.