Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: ISRO/Inside Outer Space screengrab

India’s “elite club” status is being heralded as the country’s Chandrayaan-3 Moon lander/rover mission continues to unfurl. It is the first nation to reach the south pole of the Moon and joins an exclusive set of countries succeeding in soft landing upon the lunar surface, the fourth country to do so following the former Soviet Union, the U.S. and China.

From the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the lander successfully deployed the Chandrayaan-3’s Pragyan Rover via a ramp. “India took a walk on the Moon!” advises an ISRO X tweet. “Made in India. Made for the MOON!”

Image credit: ISRO/Inside Outer Space screengrab

Image credit: ISRO/Inside Outer Space screengrab

Pre-launch checkout of India’s lunar rover.
Image credit: ISRO

SHAPE payload

Meanwhile, the Chandrayaan-3 Propulsion Module from which the lunar lander detached is continuing its journey, set to orbit the Moon for months/years, ISRO states.

Onboard that Moon-circling module is the Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) experiment.

“Future discoveries of smaller planets in reflected light would allow us to probe into variety of exo-planets which would qualify for habitability (or for presence of life),” ISRO explains.

The SHAPE payload carried on the Moon-circuiting Propulsion Module is to perform spectroscopic study of the Earth’s atmosphere and also measure the variations in polarization from the clouds on Earth.

This payload is “SHAPEd” by U R Rao Satellite Center/ISRO in Bengaluru, capital city of Karnataka state in southern India.

NASA laser retro-reflector array mounted atop India’s Moon lander.
Image credit: ISRO/NASA

Close-up of NASA laser retro-reflector array mounted atop India’s Moon lander.
Image credit: ISRO/NASA

Retro-reflector array

Now on the Moon, mounted atop the Chandrayaan-3 Moon lander is a NASA laser retro-reflector array. In NASA acronym-land, the device is better known as an LRA, supplied by the LRA project based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

The ultra-small, compact LRA is designed to use reflected laser light from a laser altimeter or lidar on a spacecraft orbiting the Moon or landing on the Moon. They are too small to be radiated by laser light shot from the Earth.

An LRA consists of eight tiny retro-reflectors mounted on a small, high hemispherical platform. Total mass of the LRA is 20 grams, and requires no power.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson wrote on X, congratulating India on the lunar landing success, adding: “We’re glad to be your partner on this mission!”

Image credit: ISRO