India's second Moon Mission - Chandrayaan II
On the day of 2nd September 2019, India made everyone remember the day we got our independence when everyone was woken up in the middle of the night to see India's emergence as a republic nation; the similar feeling repeated when India tried to enter a new technological upgrade by attempting to land its rover on the lunar south pole which was unexplored till now. This attempt by the
Indian Space Research Organization made everyone proud. Even though this attempt was not successful, this was a close step toward making history.
This attempt is to find the presence of water bodies on the lunar surface. For this program, it has selected an unexplored territory of the moon, its south pole, where no other country has been successful till now. The moon's south pole has many interesting facts, like a completely dark area without sunlight, the presence of cold traps, etc. another important feature of this mission is that the project director and the mission director are women who are leading this 970-crore program. The project director was M. Vanitha, and the mission director was Ritu Karidhal, who led the mission till its end.
The actual date of launch was initially announced to launch on 14th July, and the countdown also started for it. But it was aborted 56 minutes before the launch due to technical glitches and rescheduled to 22 July. Even though all the mistakes were corrected during the initial test, the loss of connections to it, in the end, was not anticipated. The Vikram Lander lost its connections before it reached the lunar surface. The distance was 2.1 km, and the mission completed 95% of its course after losing connections, Vikram. The orbiter is still active and sending information through it.
Other countries like the US, Russia, and China also sent their missions to the moon, but they landed near-equatorial region of the moon. China landed 4 moon missions, and the recent one, Change-4, is the 1st spacecraft to reach the far side of the moon.US and USSR launched manned missions to the moon. When we compare budgets, the money spent on Chandrayaan 2 is less than that spent on the movie The Martian.
MOON MISSION
The moon mission was a major boost to India's space program. India launched 2 missions named Chandrayaan 1 and Chandrayaan 2 to the moon. The purpose of the moon mission is that it is the closest celestial body where space discovery can be attempted, and extensive mapping of the lunar surface is essential to trace back the origin and evolution of the moon. Chandrayaan 1 was the 1st Indian lunar probe launched by ISRO in October 2008. The total cost of the mission is 386 crores. The mission included a lunar orbiter and an impactor. India launched the spacecraft using the PSLV-XL rocket.
The major objectives of the mission are to design, develop, launch and orbit the spacecraft around the moon using an Indian launch vehicle and to conduct scientific experiments using instruments on the spacecraft, which would yield data for the preparation of a three-dimensional atlas of both near and far sides of the moon. It also looked for chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface at high spatial resolution and to test the sub-satellite's impact on the moon's surface as a forerunner for future soft-landing missions.
Chandrayaan 1 data helped determine the presence of water ice on the moon through the help of spectrometer cameras and instruments. The water could also come from external sources. Comets and asteroids that contain water vapor are known to have collided with the moon in the past. The agency moon mineralogy mapper detected evidence of a hydrogen chemical bond. The signal of water appeared to be strong at the poles.
CHANDRAYAAN 2
Chandrayaan 2 will be the first lunar mission that was the first to go to the south pole of the moon, where no country has ever gone there. This effort aims to improve our understanding of the moon - discoveries that will benefit India and humanity as a whole. Moon provides the best linkage to earth's history. It offers an undisturbed historical record of the inner solar system environment. Extensive mapping of the lunar surface to study variations in lunar surface composition is essential to trace the moon's origin. Evidence for water molecules discovered by Chandrayaan 1 requires further studies on molecular distribution on the surface.
The lunar south pole is especially interesting because the lunar surface area in the shadow is much larger than the north pole. There is a possibility of water in permanently shadowed areas around it. In addition, the south pole region has craters that are cold traps and contain a fossil record of the early solar system.
The GSLV Mk-III will carry Chandrayaan 2 into its orbit. The three-stage vehicle is the most powerful launcher to date and can launch a 4-ton class of satellites. The lander of Chandrayaan 2 is named Vikram; it is designed to function for 1 lunar day, which is equivalent to about 14 earth days. Chandrayaan 2 rover is a 6-wheeled robotic vehicle named Pragyan. It can travel up to 500 m and leverages solar energy. It can only communicate with the lander.
The mission will study the moon using terrain mapping camera 2, which is onboard the orbiter; the mission will produce images of the moon remotely from a 100 km lunar polar orbit. The data collected by the orbiter will be used to produce a 3D image of the moon's terrain. The lander carries an instrument that will measure the electron density and temperature near the lunar surface, the 3
vertical temperature gradient and seismic around the landing site. The rover will carry two instruments that will collect test samples from the moon's surface to identify what elements they contain.
Chandrayaan 2 used GSLV (Geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle), whereas Chandrayaan 1 used PSLV because GSLV rockets use a different fuel and have a far greater thrust than PSLV; they carry heavy payloads and travel deep into space.
Conclusion -
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) contributed to the development of space research with its contributions. ISRO made many remarkable achievements in Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) in 2013; on March 5th, launching a rocket with the highest number of satellites (104 satellites) in the year 2014, 19th June, and many more. It is also famous for its cost-effective missions, which were less than the budget of many Hollywood movies. Its successful space travel won stop with this failure; it will continue to achieve remarkable achievements.
Image Source - Google
Authors -
Aparna Teki Narayana M.CH
Ph: 9966572191 Ph: 9370818268
Miranda College t2018ba032@tiss.edu
Delhi University TISS Tuljapur
New Delhi Maharashtra
