Chandrayaan-3: Digging, Construction Works Banned In Sriharikota

Chandrayaan-3, India's third lunar mission, is all set to lift off from Sri Harikotaat 2.35 pm on July 14, with the lander expected to soft-land on the surface of the Moon on August 23 or 24.

Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, which will be launched by LVM3 (Launch Vehicle Mark-III) (earlier referred as GSLV Mk III), is a composite of three modules -- propulsion, lander, and rover (which is housed inside the lander).

It is India's second attempt at a successful soft landing on the Moon's surface. Till now, only three countries have successfully landed spacecraft on the airless lunar world.

In view of Chandrayaan-3 mission launch, a ban on digging and construction near Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Tamil Nadu's Sriharikota has been imposed from Monday until the launch day on Friday.

The move aims at safeguarding critical communication lines, including optical fibre cables, required for essential pre-launch tests to be conducted by the ISRO.

"ISRO is launching LVM3-M4 on July 14 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. In this connection, it is absolutely essential to maintain stable communications without any interruption. The tests are in progress," Hindustan Times reported quoting sources.

Chandrayaan-3 mission carries scientific instruments to study the thermo-physical properties of the lunar regolith, lunar seismicity, lunar surface plasma environment and elemental composition in the vicinity of the landing site.While the scope of these scientific instruments on the lander and the rover would fit in the theme of "Science of the Moon", another experimental instrument will study the spectro-polarimetric signatures of the Earth from the lunar orbit, which would fit in the theme of "Science from the Moon", according to ISRO officials.'.