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ISRO - Chandrayaan-2 Mission

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June 19, 2019

Why in news?

ISRO recently announced the launch date (July 15, 2019) of Chandrayaan-2 mission, after the long delay from the scheduled launch.

Why was the delay?

  • Chandrayaan-2’s predecessor, Chandrayaan-1, was an Orbiter mission which was sent way back in 2008.
  • Following this, according to the original schedule, Chandrayaan-2 was to be launched in 2012 itself.
  • But at that time, it was supposed to be a collaborative mission with the Russian space agency, Roskosmos, which was to provide the lander module.
  • The Russians, however, withdrew from the missions.
  • [This was after Russia’s similarly-designed lander for another mission developed problems in 2011.]
  • This left ISRO to design, develop and build the lander on its own.
  • As this was new to ISRO, it had led to considerable delay from the original schedule.

What was Chandrayaan-1 mission?

  • The Chandrayaan-1 mission was ISRO’s first exploratory mission to the moon, in fact to any heavenly body in the space.
  • It was designed to just orbit around the moon and make observations with the help of the instruments on board.
  • The closest that Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft came to the moon was in an orbit 100 km from its surface.
  • For largely symbolic reasons, though, the Chandrayaan-1 mission made one of its instruments crash-land on the moon’s surface.
  • It was the Moon Impact Probe, or MIP, a 35-kg cube-shaped module with the Indian tricolour on all its sides.
  • MIP left an Indian imprint on the moon’s surface.
  • Besides, ISRO also claims that while on its way, MIP had sent data that showed evidence for the presence of water on the moon.
  • But unfortunately, those findings could not be published because of anomalies in calibration of the data.
  • [The confirmation for water had come through another onboard instrument, the M3 or Moon Mineralogy Mapper, that had been put by NASA.]
  • Given the above, Chandrayaan-2 is a logical progression on Chandrayaan-1 and a more sophisticated mission with various objectives.

What are Chandrayaan-2’s features?

  • Chandrayaan-2 is India’s first lander mission.
  • It consists of an Orbiter, Lander and Rover, all equipped with scientific instruments to study the moon.
  • The Lander and Rover modules will separate from the orbiter and make a soft-landing on moon’s surface (either on September 5 or 6, 2019).
  • The lander and rover are designed to work for only 14 days (1 lunar day) while the orbiter would remain in orbit for a year.
  • Orbiter - The Orbiter would once again watch the moon from a 100-km orbit.
  • The Orbiter is a 2379-kg spacecraft with 7 instruments on board.
  • It is equipped with different kinds of cameras to take high-resolution three-dimensional maps of the surface.
  • It also has instruments to study the mineral composition on the moon and the lunar atmosphere, and to assess the abundance of water.
  • The Orbiter will observe lunar surface and relay communication between Earth and the Lander.
  • Lander - ISRO has named the Lander module as Vikram, after Vikram Sarabhai, the pioneer of India’s space programme.
  • The 1471-kg lander will remain stationary after touching down on the moon’s surface.
  • It will carry three instruments that will mainly study the moon’s atmosphere.
  • One of the instruments will also look out for seismic activity on lunar surface.
  • Rover - The Rover is a 6-wheeled, Artificial Intelligence-powered and solar-powered vehicle named Pragyan, meaning wisdom.
  • Once on the moon, the rover will detach itself from the lander.
  • Equipped with two instruments, it would slowly crawl on the surface, making observations and collecting data.
  • Its primary objective is to study the composition of the moon’s surface near the landing site.
  • It would also determine the abundance of different elements on the moon’s surface.

Image result for chandrayaan 2

What are the challenges?

  • The Lander is the distinguishing feature as this is the first time that ISRO is attempting to soft-land a module in extra-terrestrial space.
  • Once the Lander and the Rover, enter the Moon’s gravity, they would be in a state of free fall.
  • That could end in crash-landing and destruction of instrument.
  • The main challenge is thus in controlling its speed as it approaches the surface.
  • To enable a smooth landing, the speed of the Lander just ahead of touchdown should be 1 m/s (3.6 km/h) or less.
  • Due to lack of air to provide drag, these instruments cannot make use of parachute-like technologies.
  • So instead, the Lander fires thrusters in the opposite direction to slow down.

What is the significance?

  • With Chandrayaan-2, India will become only the 4th country in the world to land a spacecraft on the moon.
  • So far, all landings, human as well as non-human, on the moon have been in areas close to its equator.
  • This was mainly because this area receives more sunlight that is required by the solar-powered instruments to function.
  • Chandrayaan-2 will make a landing at a site where no earlier mission has gone, near the South pole of the moon.
  • It is a completely unexplored territory and therefore offers great scientific opportunity for the mission to discover something new.
  • [Incidentally, the crash-landing of the MIP from the Chandrayaan-1 mission had also happened in the same region.]
  • South pole - The south pole of the moon holds the possibility of the presence of water.
  • This is one aspect that would be probed meticulously by Chandrayaan-2.
  • In addition, this area is also supposed to have ancient rocks and craters.
  • It can thus offer indications of history of moon, and also contain clues to the fossil records of early solar system.

 

Source: Indian Express

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