In a remarkable feat of space exploration, Some of the prominent craters on the Moon’s far side, which is constantly facing away from Earth, were found in the most recent photographs acquired by the Chandrayaan-3 lander.
Before making its historic arrival on the uncharted south pole zone of the moon on Wednesday night, the Vikram lander was given the responsibility of finding a safe landing place. The pictures were captured by a camera assigned to that task.
The Lander Hazard Detection and Avoidance Camera (LHDAC) took the pictures of the area on the lunar far side. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, “This camera is created at SAC/ISRO and helps in detecting a safe landing place — without boulders or deep pits — during the descent.
The craters were recognised in the photos, which were taken last Saturday: Hayn, Boss L, Mare Humboldtianum, and Bel’kovich.
The Moon’s far side, also known as the lunar hemisphere, remains in a constant state of facing away from Earth due to the synchronized revolution of the Moon’s orbit. Scientists have been fascinated by this phenomenon for many years, which makes the most recent imagery from Chandrayaan-3 even more fascinating.
On July 14 the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, successfully launched India’s third lunar mission. A few weeks later, on August 5, the lander made contact with the moon.
The lander module is set to touch down on the Moon’s south polar surface on August 23, making India the fourth nation after the US, China, and Russia to achieve this feat. ISRO announced the date and time of the historic landing through a tweet, which read, “Chandrayaan-3 is set to land on the Moon on August 23, 2023, around 18:04 Hrs. IST.”
