The first-ever space mission which was going
to the Moon’s South Polar Region.
India’s second lunar expedition
The Chandrayaan-2
Developed by ISRO using 100 percent home-grown
technology.
The Moon provides the best linkage to the
Earth’s and solar system early history.
So deeply understanding the Moon could give
us answers to many important questions.
The lunar South Polar Region where Chandrayaan-2
is going to land remains in shadow more than
the north pole of the Moon.
So there is a strong possibility of the presence
of water.
Let’s see from beginning how did ISRO developed
the Chandrayaan-2 mission.
In November 2007,
Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) and
ISRO signed an agreement to work together
on Chandrayaan-2 project.
ISRO would have the prime responsibility for
orbiter and rover while ROSCOSMOS was to produce
the lander.
On 18 September 2008,
prime minister Manmohan Singh approved the
mission in Union cabinet meeting.
The design of spacecraft was completed in
August 2009
with the scientists of both countries conducting
a joint review.
Although, ISRO finalized the payloads for
Chandrayaan-2 per schedule.
But the mission was postponed
Because Russia was unable to develop the lander
on time.
Later ROSCOSMOS withdrew in wake of the failure
of Fobos-Grunt mission to Mars.
Since the technical aspect connected with
Fobos-Grant mission were also used in the
lunar project.
When Russia cited its inability to provide
the lander even by 2015.
India decided to develop lunar mission independently.
After a little time, Chandrayaan-2 was completed.
The Chandrayaan-2 mission consists of a launcher
GSLV Mark III, Orbiter, Vikram lander and
the Pragyan Rover.
All of which are developed in India.
GSLV Mark III will carry Chandrayaan-2 to
its designated orbit.
This three-stage vehicle is India’s most
powerful launcher to date.
And it's capable of launching 4 ton class
of satellites to Geosynchronous Transfer orbit
(GTO).
The Orbiter.
Weight over 2000 kgs
It carries eight scientific instruments.
That will collect data while revolving around
the moon in orbit of 100 Km.
The orbiter High-resolution camera (OHRC)
will conduct the high-resolution observation
of landing site prior to the separation of
lander of from orbiter.
The Vikram lander
Named after Dr. Vikram A Sarabhai.
The father of Indian Space Programme.
It’s designed to function for one lunar
day which is equivalent to 14 earth days.
The Vikram lander has the capability to communicate
with IDSN near Bangalore as well as with orbiter
and Rover Pragyaan.
The lander is designed to execute a soft landing
on the lunar surface.
Rover-Pragyaan
The Pragyan Rover is a 6 wheeled robotic rover
and contains two payloads.
It can travel up to 500 meters and leverages
solar energy for its functioning.
Pragyaan rover can only communicate with lander
Vikram.
The objective of the mission is to demonstrate
the soft landing on the moon’s surface
and do different experiments on the moon’s
surface
which will help us to know better about Moon’s
surface composition and early history of the
moon and solar system.
And also to find out the presence of water
on the south polar region.
The mission has an allocated cost of 978 crore
rupees (141 million US$).
The launch date was set to 15 July,
but a technical snag was observed in launch
vehicle system before an hour of launch time.
So the launch was rescheduled on 22nd July.
The Chandrayaan-2 was ready to launch from
2nd launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Center
at Sriharikota.
ISRO successfully launched the Chandrayaan-2.
After being placed into a parking orbit of
45,475 x 169 km by the launch vehicle
the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft will gradually
raise its orbit by using on-board propulsion
over the next 22 days.
In this phase, one perigee raising and five
apogee raising burn will be performed
to reach the highly eccentric orbit of 142,975
x 276 km.
On 13th August, Trans-lunar injection was
done.
This will send Chandrayaan-2 towards moon
where moon's gravity can capture it.
After 29 days from its launch the Chandrayaan-2
spacecraft entered lunar orbit on 20 August.
After that series of lunar bound maneuvers
were done to decrease the orbit of Chandrayaan-2.
On 2nd September Vikram was going to say goodbye
to the orbiter.
The Vikram lander was separated from the orbiter.
After that series of two deorbit burn was
used to decrease the orbit of Vikram.
today,
Vikram was going to soft-land on the Moon’s
surface.
Two landing sites were selected.
Each with a landing ellipse of 32x11 km.
The prime site is on a high plain between
the two craters Manzinus C and Simpelius N
at a latitude of 70 degrees south.
Vikram began its descent by using its onboard
computers on Vikram with the mission control
unable to make corrections.
In next fifteen minutes vikram was about to
land on Moon’s surface.
Everything was working fine as expected.
But unfortunately the lander trajectory began
to deviate at about
2.1 kilometers above the surface of the Moon.
The final telemetry reading during ISRO live
stream
show that VIkram final velocity was 58 m/s
at 330 meter above the surface which is quite
fast for lunar landing.
Instead of expected velocity of 2 m/s.
Crash was confirmed by ISRO chairmen K Sivan
stating that “ lander location was found
and that must have been hard landing “.
Both ISRO and NASA attempted to communicate
with lander for about two weeks.
Before the lunar night set in .
But unable to communicate.
The orbiter part of mission, with its eight
scientific instruments remains operational
and will continue its seven year mission to
study the moon.
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