India’s 'Bahubali' rocket: What is LVM3 that will launch Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft?

India is geared up for the Chandrayaan-3 mission scheduled for Friday (14 July). The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will deploy the Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM3), dubbed ‘Bahubali’ by the media, to launch the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft toward the moon. The spacecraft consists of a two-metre tall robotic moon lander – Vikram – and rover Pragyaan. This is India’s third lunar journey which aims to send a 3921-kilogramme satellite to the moon. What is this ‘Bahubali’ rocket? LVM3, a three-stage launch vehicle, was previously known as Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark-III. As per ISRO, LVM3 comprises “two solid propellant S200 strap-ons and core stages comprising of L110 liquid stage, C25 cryogenic stage, the equipment bay (EB) and the Encapsulated assembly (EA)”. Developed at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, the S200 solid rocket boosters have a height of 25 metre and a 3.2 metre diameter. “The liquid L110 stage uses a twin liquid engine configuration with 115 tonnes of liquid propellant, while the C25 cryogenic upper stage is configured with the fully indigenous high thrust cryogenic engine (CE20) with a propellant loading of 28 tonnes,” says India’s space agency. [caption id=“attachment_12863172” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] LVM-3 carrying Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft in 2019. Reuters File Photo[/caption] The EA includes the spacecraft, Payload Adaptor (PLA) and Payload fairing (PF). Standing 43.5 metre tall, the launch vehicle has a lift-off mass of 640 tonnes. India’s heaviest rocket, LVM3, is called “fat boy" by ISRO scientists. The launch vehicle can carry communication satellites weighing up to 4 tonnes into geosynchronous transfer orbits (GTO). It can also lift off a payload of up to 8 tonnes into low earth orbit (LEO). LVM3’s missions The launch vehicle took its experimental flight in 2014. It has had a 100 per cent success rate to date, noted NDTV. In its first developmental flight in 2017, the rocket blasted off a 3,136-kg communication satellite into the GTO. In 2019, the rocket was used to launch Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft. While the mission successfully deployed the lunar orbiter, its lander and rover lost contact with Earth and crashed onto the lunar surface. Last October, LVM3 successfully placed 36 broadband satellites of UK-based OneWeb into orbits, bolstering ISRO’s plans to make a mark in the commercial satellite market. “LVM3 M2/OneWeb India-1 mission is completed successfully. All the 36 satellites have been placed into intended orbits,” the Indian space agency said at the time. In its sixth launch in March this year, LVM3 injected 36 OneWeb satellites into orbit. ISRO also plans to use its “well-proven and reliable heavy lift launcher”, LVM3 rocket, as the launch vehicle for the Gaganyaan mission, India’s first human spaceflight. Know about Chandrayaan-3 Chandrayaan-3 is set to take off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, at 2:35 pm on Friday. The mission’s success depends on the safe landing of the spacecraft about 70 degrees from the moon’s south pole. The landing will happen “only when the sun rises on the moon, to get 14 Earth days, or one lunar day, to work,” Arun Sinha, a former senior scientist at ISRO, was quoted as saying by Space.com. If all goes well, the lander and rover will safely touch down on the Moon’s surface on 23-24 August. If the soft-landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the moon is successful, India will become the fourth country after the United States, the former Soviet Union and China to have achieved the feat. India may also emerge as the first country to land near the Moon’s south pole.

“The south pole region has very different geology from the region around the [US] Apollo missions, so Chandrayaan-3 will provide a close-up view of an entirely new region of the moon,” Marc Norman, a planetary geochemist at the Australian National University in Canberra, told Nature. This time the Indian space agency has addressed concerns of the previous failed Chandrayaan-2 mission as well as included new fail-safe measures. “ISRO has developed better sequences for a safe landing and the lander now has four thruster engines instead of five. The legs of the lander are stronger, and it has larger solar panels. Furthermore, in order to effectively deal with potential disruptions and ensure a higher level of safety for the mission, extra fuel will be included in the lander. This increased fuel capacity will enhance its ability to manage unforeseen circumstances and increase the likelihood of a successful recovery if required,” space and aerospace expert Girish Linganna told The Week. Speaking to PTI, S Somanath, ISRO chairman, said earlier that Chandrayaan-3 has additional fuel so it can handle dispersion or move to an alternate landing site if needed. The Vikram lander also has more solar panels this tine to generate power regardless of how it lands. With inputs from agencies