Explained: The Role Sun Will Play In Chandrayaan-3's Landing On Moon

ISRO has made changes to Chandrayaan-3, based on the lessons learnt from the failure of Chandrayaan-2 that failed in September 2019.

In less than an hour, India will make history by launching its third moon mission, called Chandrayaan-3, to explore the lunar surface. It is a follow-up mission to Chandrayaan-2 and will land on the south pole of Earth's natural satellite after a 40-day journey. According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the soft-landing has been planned according to the availability of sunlight. This has been done since solar panel has been added to the lander. ISRO chief S Somanath told news agency PTI that the additional solar panels will ensure that the lander generates power no matter how it lands.

"The sunlight is very important. That is why the landing has been planned when sunlight is available. It is crucial that it stays for the day so that you can charge the solar panels and the rover can go around," Annapurni Subramaniam, Director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bengaluru, told NDTV.

The module will approximately take six weeks to reach the moon around August 23. "The date is decided based on when the sunrise is on the moon; it will depend on the calculations, but if it gets delayed, then we will have to keep the landing for the next month in September," Mr Somanath had said last week.