Chandrayaan-3 Propulsion Module returns to Earth orbit

The Propulsion Module (PM) of India's Chandrayaan-3 has been successfully shifted from the lunar orbit to an orbit around Earth, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Tuesday.

The re-orbiting was done to continue the Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload for Earth observation.

"This mission plan was worked out considering the collision avoidance such as preventing the PM from crashing on to the Moon's surface or entering into the Earth's GEO belt at 36000 km and orbits below that. Considering the estimated fuel availability and the safety to GEO spacecrafts, the optimal Earth return trajectory was designed for October 2023 month," the agency said.

Currently, Chandrayaan-3 's PM is orbiting Earth and crossed its first perigee (its closest point to Earth) on November 22 with an altitude of 1.54 lakhs km. As per current orbit prediction, there are no threats of close approach with any operational Earth-orbiting satellites.

The return maneuvers carried out on CH3 PM has provided the following outcomes for future missions:

• Planning and execution of trajectory and maneuvers to return from Moon to Earth.
• Development of a software module to plan such a maneuver and its preliminary validation.
• Planning and execution of a gravity assisted flyby across a planets/ celestial body.
• Avoiding uncontrolled crashing of the PM on the Moon’s surface at the end of life of PM thus meeting the requirements of no debris creation.

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

Chandrayaan-3 mission launched on July 14, 2023, to demonstrate soft landing near to lunar south polar region and perform experiments using the instruments on the Vikram lander and the Pragyaan rover.

On August 23, the Lander made its historic touchdown on the lunar South Pole and subsequently the rover was deployed. The scientific instruments in Lander and Rover were operated continuously for 1 lunar day as per the defined mission life.