ISRO surprised again Chandrayaan-3 propulsion module called back to Earth

Chandrayaan-3 mission has brought popularity to India and our space agency ISRO across the world. Now ISRO has done something which no one had any idea of. Chandrayaan-3’s propulsion module i.e. PM, which was circling the Moon till now, has been returned by ISRO to the Earth’s orbit. This simply means that in future ISRO can also bring its spacecrafts back to Earth. It seems that even ISRO had no idea that it would have to do something like this. Let us know why the propulsion module was brought into Earth’s orbit and what it will do now.

According to PTI and media reports, ISRO was assuming that the propulsion module would work for 3 months. But there is still enough fuel left in it that it can work for many years. The initial task of the propulsion module was to separate the lander after reaching the final orbit of the Moon. After this ISRO started ‘Spectro-Polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth’ (SHAPE) installed in PM. It was estimated that it would last for 3 months.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:

Ch-3’s Propulsion Module (PM) takes a successful detour!

In another unique experiment, the PM is brought from Lunar orbit to Earth’s orbit.

An orbit-raising maneuver and a Trans-Earth injection maneuver placed PM in an Earth-bound orbit.… pic.twitter.com/qGNBhXrwff

— ISRO (@isro) December 5, 2023

However, after more than a month of operating in lunar orbit, more than 100 kg of fuel remained in the propulsion module. ISRO says that the remaining fuel in the propulsion module will be used to gather more information for future Moon missions. In such a situation, it was decided to bring it back to Earth’s orbit.

According to the report, on October 9 this year, the propulsion module was given the command to change its orbit. Just as it went from the Earth to the Moon, in the same way it started coming from the Moon to the Earth. The orbit of the propulsion module was changed for the last time on 22 November. Now it is in an orbit where it is safe and is not threatened by any satellite or other things.