The Aakhya Weekly #57 | Moon Mission 2023: All systems are go

Jul 21, 2023

On 14 July 2023, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) commenced the launching of the Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission to land on the moon and conduct explorations on its surface. Onca again, India’s top scientists and experts turned their sights on the quaint town of Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, the site from where the spacecraft took off to the moon.

ISRO specifies three major objectives for Chandrayaan-3:

- To demonstrate a safe and soft landing on the moon’s surface

- Rover operations

- On-site experiments

A brief recap: Chandrayaan-1

Indian’s first lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at Sriharikota on 22 October 2008. With a lift-off mass of about 1,380 kg, Chandrayaan-1 reached the moon and orbited it 3,400 times, completing 312 days. Although the mission was originally scheduled for a period of 2 years, it was able to complete 95% of its objectives. Chandrayaan-1 was able to enter the Moon’s orbit on 8 November 2008. Most crucially, on 14 November 2008, the Moon Impact Probe (MIP), which was attached to the spacecraft, was able to separate successfully, making a controlled crash-landing on the moon’s South Pole. The MIP was able to discover traces of water on the moon’s surface – a pathbreaking achievement that bolstered ISRO’s efforts at pursuing future lunar missions. The MIP also found traces of ice at the moon’s North Pole region, and further detected deposits of aluminium, magnesium, and silicon.

Chandrayaan-2: Lessons for the future

Chandrayaan-2 presents a picture of the enormous difficulties and the immense precision associate with lunar missions. It also demonstrates that landing on the moon is a highly ambitious endeavour that takes years of planning, calculations and – as a hallmark of scientific progress – learning from failures. Only three nations have been able to successfully complete a landing on the moon: the United States, Russia, and China. When successful, India will be the fourth. But the path to scientific progress is marked, as any scientist would know, by the process of trial and error. There is, indeed, no other way.

Chanrayaan-2 was launched on 22 July 2019 from SDSC, Sriharikota and entered the moon’s orbit on 20 August 2019. The ‘Vikram’ lander and lunar rover were poised to alight on the surface of the moon on 6 September 2019. However, communications to the ground stations were cut off from the lander when it was about 2km from the surface of the moon – a moment described by former ISRO Chairman K Sivan as “fifteen minutes of terror”. It posits the difficulties in landing on an unmapped, dark terrain with no atmosphere, reduced gravity and beset by lunar dust. Only 37% of soft landings on the moon have been successful. Nevertheless, the mission was successfully able to photograph and map the landing site and relay these images back to the ground stations prior to losing contact.

Back to the drawing board: Developing Chandrayaan-3

Taking heart from partial successes, ISRO has risen to the challenge of perfecting the dream of a moon mission once again. Although Chandrayaan-2 suffered partial setbacks, it still paved the way for progress in future missions. It alerted ISRO to the need to rectify errors in the spacecraft’s manoeuvring capabilities and provided a wealth of information about the moon’s surface through high-resolution images that were taken by the orbiter prior to the crash-landing.

ISRO has developed Chandrayaan-3 using a “failure-based” design, with contingencies in place to deal with whatever can go wrong in the third lunar mission. Software limitations that prevented Chandrayaan-2’s ability to turn around quickly and the high velocity with which the craft hit the ground have been kept in mind during the planning of Chandrayaan-3. The new lander will be equipped with more fuel so that it can travel longer distances to an alternate landing site. Further, the propose landing site has been expanded to cover a larger surface area, as opposed to a specific patch for landing in the previous mission. The high-resolution images from the previous orbiter will be fed into Chanrayaan-3, which will analyse them for confirmation about the landing site. The lander itself has been refurbished, with sturdier legs for landing and an increased number of solar panels. The lander will be equipped with four payloads to study lunar quakes, plasma changes near the surface, thermal properties of the surface, and measurements of the distance between the Earth and the moon. The rover will also carry two payloads – one to study the chemical composition of the lunar surface and one to determine composition of elements in the lunar soil and rocks.

Chandrayaan-3 will attempt a soft landing on the moon this August. Latest reports suggest that the spacecraft has completed the fourth orbit raising manoeuvre around the Earth, taking it a step closer to its destination in a circuitous path. Once it completes the fifth manoeuvre (scheduled for 25 July), it will leave the Earth’s orbit and move directly towards the moon’s orbit, circling lower and lower, until it is time to make the landing. It carries with it the hopes and aspirations of an entire nation, and the anticipations of the Indian scientific community in learning more about the solar system and the secrets of the cosmos.

Safe travels, Chandrayaan-3.

Top Stories of the Week

The Parliament begins its monsoon session

The Monsoon Session of the Indian parliament commenced on July 20 and will go on till August 11, spanning 23 days. The session began in the historic old Parliament building and will later shift to the new one. While the session is planned for 17 sittings, the past few sessions have seen significant disruptions, with little legislative business taking place.

This time around, the government has an ambitious legislative agenda, as it plans to take up as many as 31 bills during this session. This includes various bills for fresh introduction as well as others that were previously sent to the committees for approval. Among these are the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill, the The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2022 and the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill.

Prominently, the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, which is an updated version of the 2022 draft, has recently received cabinet approval. The bill aims to create a comprehensive legal framework governing the protection of digital personal data in the country and is expected to trigger a face-off between the Opposition and the government. Another significant issue that may spark a heated debate is the Government of NCT (Amendment) Bill, intended to replace the Delhi services ordinance. The ordinance was introduced following the [Supreme Court's ruling](https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-law/dispute-centre-delhi-govt-supreme-court-explained-8603403/#:~:text=The 5-judge constitution bench,National Capital Territory (NCT).) on the tussle between the Delhi and Central Governments, intending to curtail the state government's control over bureaucrats in Delhi.

The session is poised to be politically turbulent, with the opposition emphatically declaring that a discussion on the crisis in Manipur was "non-negotiable" a day before the session began. The issue took center stage as the first day of the session unfolded, with both Houses of Parliament being adjourned due to intense protests led by the opposition. There is also speculation around issues like the introduction of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) being discussed in the future parliamentary proceedings.

UPI reaches France

Last Friday, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), the organisation tasked with internationalising the UPI, and the French payment institution, Lyra Collect, entered into an agreement to allow the use of UPI in France - marking the conclusion of efforts that have gone on for a year. Once this facility is operational, Indian tourists to France shall be able to make Rupee payments using the UPI.

The UPI can only work in another country once the payment system creates a linkage with a payment operator in the host country. With the agreement in place, the UPI shall be linked to Lyra Connect, and payments shall flow from one to the other. In similar arrangements with other countries, banks quote an exchange rate to the NPCI, which adds a mark-up and quotes a final exchange rate to the user.

The agreement is but a first step, with another 3-4 months before the service goes live in France. French merchants and Indian banks must now be made ready for the service to work effectively. Once effective, the move will greatly simplify Indian tourists’ French travel. UPI shall allow them to pay in Rupees, eliminating the need to deal with collecting foreign exchange beforehand, and having to use cash and forex cards for transactions.

Although UPI can now be used in countries like the UAE, Singapore and Bhutan, this marks its first foray into Europe. In the next few months, the service hopes to reach another two or three countries. In fact, talks with Indonesia are already underway. The service aims at countries that are important for Indian travelers, and which already boast wide-spread acceptance of QR codes.

A Few Good Reads

Ajay Banga, Work Bank President, lays out a vision for the institution that is alive to the challenges that consume us, while supporting the development ambitions of the Global South.
In the first of a three part series, M. Rajshekhar looked at India’s dash to secure critical minerals. In the second, he looks at the challenges, both domestic and international, in trying to secure such supplies. We’re waiting eagerly for the third.
The pseudonymous “Basho” argues that stablecoins should be seen as the foundation for a modern financial system, presenting one of the few concrete examples of cryptocurrency’s promise.
Aditi Malhotra examines how the idea of “role compatibility” explains the increasing convergence, as well as the many divergences, in Indo-US relations.
Rohan Venkat interviews Nikhil Menon on his fascinating book, Planning Democracy, which describes India’s experiment in mixing Western liberal democracy with socialist-inspired central planning - a domestic inversion of its non-alignment policy.

Special Dispatch: Aakhya looks at the draft Indian Telecommunications Bill!

Aakhya hosted an event on Wednesday, 19th July 2023, to discuss the draft Indian Telecommunications Bill and its potential impact on the telecommunications sector. The event featured prominent speakers, including Mr. Mahesh Uppalfrom Comfirst India, Mr. Kunal Raj Barua of the Aapti Institute and Mr. Vijayant Singh from Ikigai Law, who brought to light the impact they expected the Bill to have, as well as the challenges and implications they anticipated. Reflecting on the complexity of creating a legislation for the modern communications space, the panelists stressed on the need for comprehensive dialogue between stakeholders, the importance of building a competitive marketplace, and the need to manage compliance costs. They also made various pointed recommendations for the Government to consider in fine-tuning the legislation. Below are some highlights from the session:

Mr. Uppal looked at the history of telecommunications regulation in India, arguing that it came from an era where a competitive marketplace was outside its imagination. With this legacy, he argued, the new Bill is expanding licensing requirements in an era where most countries are doing away with them.
Mr. Barua, thereafter, highlighted the various costs the legislation places on various stakeholders, emphasising that in a marketplace, no cost is ever borne by one entity alone. He drew out the implications of these costs, arguing that users shall be driven away, while money will be diverted to meeting regulatory costs rather than improving quality and service.
Mr. Singh stressed that a legislation of such importance requires extensive consultation with those that will be affected. He underlined the importance of ensuring sufficient clarity in the industry as transitions to the legislation.
Mr. Singh also noted the folly of treating OTT platforms as analogous to telecommunications service providers. Such an approach, he argued, could place significant costs on these platforms, and may require massive technical changes in how they operate.

The Aakhya Weekly