Chandrayaan-3 Tamil Connect

The Tamil connection of the Chandrayaan mission highlights the contribution of three scientists from Tamil Nadu. These three scientists helmed each of the crucial Moon missions of India’s space programme. One of them is popularly known as the ‘Moon Man of India’. Mayilsamy Annadurai led the maiden Chandrayaan mission in 2008. Second scientist, M Vanitha led the Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019, and M Veeramuthuvel is heading the current Chandrayaan-3 Mission.

 After Chandrayaan-3’s lift-off on July 14 at 2.35 pm from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, Veeramuthuvel rushed back to the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru to track the rocket. 

He told the media that he would be able to say anything only after making sure that the landing module makes a soft-landing on the lunar surface – an exercise which is planned for August 23 at 6.04 PM. 

About SHAPE payload on Chandrayaan-3 

Other than the three scientists, people must know about the spacecraft’s ‘SHAPE’ payload on the propulsion module. The acronym stands for Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth. It is an experimental payload onboard the Chandrayaan-3 mission, which will study spectro-polarimetric signatures of Earth in the near-infrared wavelength range, ISRO said. 

“It is the only scientific payload on the propulsion module of the Chandrayaan-3 mission,” ISRO said. The scientific payload is the brainchild of the U R Rao Satellite Centre, Bengaluru. Its main aim is to characterise Earth’s integrated spectrum and polarisation signatures at various phase angles from the vantage point of lunar orbit. 

The payload will delve into some basic questions related to space like, what could be the disc-integrated spectrum of an Earth-like exo-planet and what could be the disc-integrated ‘polarisation’ from an Earth-like exo-planet, ISRO said. 

India’s lunar space misssion achieved major milestone on August 17, when its lander module, carryning the rover inside it, got detached from the propulsion module which carries the SHAPE payload. The SHAPE payload consists of an Acousto-Optic Tunable Filter based element driven by a Radio Frequency source and has a pair of Indium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs) detectors. One of the main contributions of SHAPE payload would be furture discoveries of smaller planets in reflected light. This would help ISRO in probing a variety of exoplanets.

Updated: 23 Aug 2023, 12:16 PM IST