Successful launch of Chandrayaan-2 took place on the memorable date of 22 Jul 2019 Chandrayaan-2 is India’s second mission to the moon: a follow-up mission to the Chandrayaan- 1 mission that helped in confirming the existence of water/hydroxyl on the moon in the year 2009.
Why in discussion?
On 22 July 2019, the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was successfully launched with Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-GSLV Mark III from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR: SDSC-SHAR at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
Some of the noteworthy key points about the mission:
The spacecraft involved in the mission, is currently circling around the Earth at 169.7 km closest to the Earth and 45,475 km farthest from the Earth. This flight is the first operational flight of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III. It is notable that it was earlier scheduled to be launched on July 15, 2019 but due to some technical problems within its most powerful and significant rocket, almost less than a few hours before its scheduled launch and so it was stopped before the launch. It was then rescheduled to launch on July 22, 2019.
Soon after the spacecraft was separated from the launch vehicle, the solar array of the spacecraft i.e. Solar Array was automatically deployed and ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network- ISTRAC) in Bangalore, successfully controlled the spacecraft.
In the later days, the process was conducted in Orbit in a sequential manner using Chandrayaan-2’s on-board propulsion system.
Chandrayaan-2 campaign
This is India’s second mission to the moon. It uses a fully indigenous orbiter, lander (Vikram) and rover (Pragya). The rover (Pragya) is locate inside the lander (Vikram). One of the objectives of Chandrayaan-2 mission is to develop and demonstrate a significant technology, which includes moon mission capability, soft-landing on the moon and walking on the
lunar surface.
With the information obtained by this mission, the understanding of the origin and development of the Moon will be better by studying the geographical location of the Moon, mineralogy, chemical composition of the surface, temperature, geographical properties and circumference.
After leaving Earth’s orbit and entering the Moon’s sphere of influence, the propulsion system of Chandrayaan-2 was ignited to reduce the speed of the vehicle. This enabled it to enter the Moon’s primary orbit. After this, under several technical works, a circular orbit of Chandrayaan-2 was established 100 km above the lunar surface.
After this, the lander separated from the orbiter and travelled 100 kilometre x 30 kilometre. The lander was supposed to perform a soft-landing on the Moon’s South Pole on September 07, 2019, after several complex technical procedures.
However, In the early hours of the day the landing was scheduled, communication from the ‘Vikram’ lander to ground stations was unfortunately lost during its powered descent to the Lunar surface. The whole nation came together to support the hard working scientists behind the mission, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to boost the morale of the scientists by giving a heartfelt speech of 25- minute duration. The space agency also received support on a global level including the senior space
agency NASA.
The overall mission was, however, not considered a failure, despite the apparent crash-landing of the lander, ISRO confirmed that all the instruments on board the orbiter are working well and the Orbiter has sufficient fuel to function for about next 7.5 years. The Chandrayaan-2 Mission, in conclusion, is considered to be 95% successful by ISRO Chief, Kailasavadivoo Sivan.
The technology behind it:
GSLV Mark-III
GSLV Mark III is a high propulsion capability vehicle developed by ISRO. Through this, 4 tons of geo-synchronous satellites of India can be placed in orbit. Thus India intends to become fully self- sufficient in terms of satellite launch.
GLSV Mark III height is 43.43 m and the lift off mass is 640 tons. There are three stages in which the indigenous cryogenic engine ‘CE-20’ will be used.
Recently, in November 2018, the GSLV Mark-III D2 launch vehicle was used to put the GSAT-29 communication satellite into orbit.
ISRO currently has the capability to launch payloads of up to 2.2 tonnes only and has to depend on foreign countries to launch more than that. GSLV Mark-3 will be India’s most powerful launch vehicle capable of placing four tonnes of weight communication satellites in a geosynchronous orbit with a height of 36,000 km. It is known that currently GSLV Mark-II has a capacity of about 2 tonnes.
An important feature of the GSLV Mark III is that it uses the third stage of the Indian cryogenic engine and has a higher payload carrying capacity than the current GSLV. Other memorable technological facts The weight of the orbiter is about 2,369 kg, while the lander and rover weigh 1,477 kg and 26 kg respectively.
The rover can travel up to 500 meters. For this, it will draw energy from the solar panel in the rover Chandrayaan-2 also has many payloads which will give detailed information about the origin and evolution of the Moon. The orbiter has 8 payloads, the lander has 3 payloads and the rover has 2 payloads. The orbiter payloads intend to conduct remote-sensin observations from about 100 kilometre orbit. The estimated mission life of the orbiter of mass 2,379-kg, is one whole year. The objectives of the eight scientific payloads of the orbiter are to map the lunar surface as well as
study the exosphere ,which is the outer atmosphere, of the Moon for research purposes.
According to an update on the orbiter, the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter seems to be healthy as well as safe in the Lunar orbit, as said by an ISRO official after the unfortunate event of the Vikram lander losing contact with ground stations few minutes before the touchdown on the Moon’s surface. While the lander and the rover payload intended to perform measurements near the landing site.
The third important dimension of the Chandrayaan-2 mission is the technology installed on Earth. Through it, scientists will be able to get information about data from all the instruments from the spacecraft. It will also send radio commands to the spacecraft in order to acquire significant
information to aid the objectives of the mission.
Chandrayaan-2’s technical facilities on Earth include the Indian Deep Space Network, the Spacecraft Control Centre and the Indian Space Science Data Centre. The Significance of the mission and why it should be supported:
The objective of the mission was to explore an “untouched part” of the moon which will present an opportunity to get an overview of the minera structure and other properties that, in the future, can be used for commercialisation. Presence of water on moon’s surface also increases the chance of habitation on moon in future.
Developing new capabilities in instrumentation for carrying out a detailed study of the properties of the moon including rare materials and some other physical properties is important. These materials could be considered for alternate fuel and precious metals which have the capacity to be mined.
One of the important aspects is the potential of global collaboration for progressive space research. Planetary missions like Chandrayaan-2 help locate India on the global map, giving it an some standing and leverage to be able to collaborate with other developed countries and help contribute
in mankind’s mission to explore the universe.
