Chandrayaaan 2 was an extremely critical mission by ISRO.
22-July-2019, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched 2nd lunar exploration Chandrayaan 2 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. ISRO used GSLV MkIII-M1 to launch the mission on the Lunar surface. ISRO developed GSLV MkIII-M1 by using home technology. Candrayaan-2 carried a lunar orbiter, lander, and rover.
Purpose of Chandrayaan 2
ISRO used a brand new technology for the Chandrayaan 2 mission compared to the previous Chandrayaan 1 mission. Therefore they explained that it was an extremely critical mission. Chandrayaan-2 would explore the south pole of the moon. The mission’s plan was to a detailed study of topography, seismography, mineral identification, and distribution of the moon. ISRO scientists also planned to study the thermo-physical characteristics of top soil and composition of the tenuous lunar atmosphere of the moon.
If the mission would successful, the ISRO scientists would able to understand the origin and evolution of the moon.
First one to land on the south pole of the moon
China landed it’s Chinese Chang’e 4, on the moon on 3rd, January 2019. It was landed successfully on the south pole of the moon and became the 1st one to land on the south pole of the moon.
Which location of the moon, Chandrayaan 2 would land
Chandrayaan 2 attempted to soft-land the lander -Vikram and rover- Pragyan in a high plain. The landing area was between two craters, Manzinus C and Simpelius N, at a latitude of about 70° south.
The lander-Vikram would land near the South Pole of the moon on 7th September 2019.
The prerequisite of the mission
- GSLV MkIII– Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III: It is India’s most mighty launcher till date. And it has been completely designed and fabricated from within the country. It is capable of launching a 4-ton class of satellite to the orbit.
- Orbiter – The Orbiter observes the lunar surface and relays communication to Earth. The orbiter has a high-resolution camera and, it sends quality images from the moon to the ISRO ground station.
- Vikram Lander – The lander is designed to execute India’s first soft landing on the lunar surface. However, the communication was lost during the period of the soft landing of the lander to the ground station. And because of this, the ISRO mission became unsuccessful.
- Pragyan Rover – The rover is a 6-wheeled, AI-powered vehicle named Pragyan, which translates to ‘wisdom‘ in Sanskrit. The main objective of the Pragyan Rover was to determine the elemental composition of the moon surface. It also would try to identify and detect the abundance of elements of the moon surface.
Chandrayaan-2 Special
- ISRO claimed, “1st space mission to conduct a soft landing on the Moon’s south polar region”. But unluckily, it is not fulfilled.
- 1st Indian expedition to attempt to a soft landing on the lunar surface with home ground technology.
- 1st Indian mission to explore the lunar terrain with home ground technology.
What did happen with Chandrayaan 2?
ISRO was not lucky enough to complete the Chandrayaan 2 mission successfully. On 6-September 2019, the soft landing process malfunctioned, which caused a hard landing of Chandrayaan 2.
According to the failure analysis report, a software glitch caused the crash of the Chndrayaan-2 on the Lunar surface. The software glitch caused communication lost between the lander and the ground station of ISRO. And, it never got the connection back to continue the mission.
The orbiter is still doing his work on the Lunar orbit, as well as it can continue its orbital experiments for the next 7years.
Chandrayaan 1
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched Chandrayaan 1 on 22-October 2008. It was the first lunar exploration mission under the Chandrayaan program. ISRO used a PSLV-XL rocket to launch Chandrayaan-1 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.
ISRO used Chandrayaan-1 to survey the lunar surface. It sent a lot of information to the ISRO. With the help of this information, ISRO confirmed the presence of water in the solar soil.
After almost a year, Chandrayaan 1 stopped communicating on 28-August 2009.