Days after the Chandrayaan-3 lander, Vikram, made a soft landing on the Moon in August 2023, scientists at ISRO found a dilemma on their hands.
Vikram still had some propellant left, and a section of scientists did not want it to go unused. Others, however, were not in favour of any additional experiments as the mission was already a success.
Finally, ISRO decided to go off book.
This is how the Vikram lander ended up carrying out an unexpected “hop” experiment on the Moon — rising to a height of 40 cm before landing around 30-40 cm away from its original landing site.
Recalling the days leading up to the surprise experiment was ISRO chief V Narayanan, one of the key players in the Chandrayaan-3 mission. “To be very frank, on the day of landing, there was terrible tension. But the propulsion systems functioned perfectly and Chandrayaan-3 landed. The mission was a huge success,” he said in a video lecture at the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad Tuesday.
“With unused propellant, S Somanath, the former ISRO chairman, and I had a discussion and we were considering why not simply lift the lander again and place it nearby. Many scientists of the Chandrayaan-3 teams, though, were not interested. This, as the original goal of the mission, that is, soft landing on the moon had been successfully achieved,” Narayanan said.
After a lot of back-and-forth, in September 2023, Vikram’s engines reignited with last remaining bit of fuel and made the “hop”.
In the process, ISRO demonstrated its capability to get the lander to fire its engines and produce the thrust to lift it off the ground. This capability is key to future lunar missions which will involve return journeys to Earth.
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The successful hop experiment came as a surprise for everyone since ISRO had never talked about it previously, and it was never a part of original mission.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
