Chennai, July 5 (UNIL) The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

on Wednesday announced that the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was integrated

with the Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM3).

The third lunar mission will take place later this month from the spaceport of

Sriharikota, where all arrangements for the mission are on in full swing.

The launch will take place from the Second Launch Pad at the SHAR Range.

In a tweet, ISRO said "Today, at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota,

the encapsulated assembly containing Chandrayaan-3 is mated with LVM3."

The launch window for Chandrayaan-3 is between July 12 and 19.

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 Lander and Rover configuration. The propulsion module

will carry the lander and rover configuration till 100 km lunar orbit. The

propulsion module has Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth

(SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and Polari metric measurements

of Earth from the lunar orbit.

The Lander payloads are Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment

(ChaSTE) to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature; Instrument

for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) for measuring the seismicity around the

landing site; Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate the plasma density and its

variations.

A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA is accommodated for lunar

laser ranging studies.

The Rover payloads are 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 an indigenous Lander module (LM), Propulsion

Module (PM) and a Rover with an objective of developing and demonstrating

new technologies required for Inter planetary 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 mobility.

The Lander and the 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 till final lunar 100 km circular polar orbit and separate the LM

from PM.

Apart from this, the Propulsion Module also has one scientific payload as

a value addition which will be operated post separation of Lander Module.

ISRO sources said more fuel has been added to the lander, along with new

equipment, and also strengthened it. Chandrayaan-3 will be going in the same

path as its predecessor, and will also be landing at the same site.