'Smooth sailing': ISRO releases Moon's new images

ISRO on Tuesday released images of the Moon captured by the Lander Position Detection Camera (LPDC) of the Chandrayaan-3 mission from an altitude of about 70 km on August 19.

LPDC images assist the Lander Module (LM) of the mission, scheduled to make a soft-landing on the Lunar surface on Wednesday, in determining its position (latitude and longitude) by matching them against an onboard moon reference map, the Bengaluru-headquartered national space agency said.

The ISRO on Monday released images of the Lunar far side area captured by the Lander Hazard Detection and Avoidance Camera (LHDAC).

"The mission is on schedule. Systems are undergoing regular checks. Smooth sailing is continuing," ISRO said in an update this afternoon on India's third mission to the Moon.

This camera that assists in locating a safe landing area -- without boulders or deep trenches -- during the descent is developed by Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre (SAC), a major research and development centre of ISRO.

According to ISRO, to achieve the mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3, several advanced technologies are present in the Lander such as LHDAC.

Chandrayaan-3, launched on July 14, is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.