Chandrayaan-3’s likely landing sites finalised By ISRO.

February 9, 2023

All the probable three landing sites are on moon’s south polar region on the side facing earth.
- Landing sites are decided on basis of local and global slope, illumination from sun, radio communication with earth, and crater and boulder sizes.
- Prime landing site lies between Manzius U and Boguslawsky M craters (southern pole region) on moon.
Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2.
Its primary objective is putting a Lander and rover in highlands near south pole of Moon in 2023.
It consists of Lander and Rover configuration.
- Lander: Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment measure thermal conductivity and temperature; Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity measures seismicity around landing site; Langmuir Probe estimates plasma density and its variations.
- Rover: Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) for deriving elemental composition in vicinity of landing site.
It’ll be launched by Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mk III from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
- GSLV is a 3-stage rocket, powered by a cryogenic engine.

Earlier Chandrayaan Missions

Chandrayaan-1 (2008): Successfully inserted into lunar orbit.
Chandrayaan-2 (2019): Successfully launched and inserted into lunar orbit in 2019, but it’s lander crash-landed on the moon’s surface due to a software glitch.