ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2: Unveil Mysteries of Moon

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Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) being one of the world’s top space agency has created another world record of successfully sending launch vehicle to south pole of Moon. This is not the first mission of ISRO to the Moon, back in 2008 ISRO has launched Chandrayaan-1 for exploring the surface of Moon. But this time, Chandrayaan-2 has more cool stuff and got to reveal more secrets of Moon. It takes 48 days for the launch vehicle to reach Moon.

About Mission

Chandrayaan-2 mission is to study the key points like Lunar Topography, Seismography, Mineral Identification, Surface Chemical Composition, and Temperatures of Moon that remained untold till today. All these parameters will help ISRO to find how the water bodies/sources are formed on the surface of the Moon. It is known from Chandrayaan-1 that there are 3 sources of water on Moon namely Endogenous process, Asteroid and Cometary impacts, and Hydroxyl compounds. So, Chandrayaan-2 got to reveal the interactions between these water sources on Moon.

Fig.1. Water sources on Moon

To achieve this ISRO has used its most powerful rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark- III with 43 meters height and 4 meters wide (approximately). This rocket is designed to carry about 4000 Kg of payload into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit and about 8000 Kg of payload into Low Earth Orbit. Chandrayaan-2 consists of Orbiter, Lander named ‘Vikram’, and six wheeled Rover named ‘Pragyan’ as shown in Fig.2.

Fig.2. Lander and Rover (Source: ISRO)

Instruments

Orbiter

The Orbiter is designed for the communication purpose as shown in Fig.3. The data collected will be sent to ISRO by communicating with Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) located at Byalalu, Bangalore.

Fig.3. Orbiter (Source: ISRO)

Vikram Lander

Lander is named Vikram, after Dr. Vikram A Sarabhai, father of Indian Space Program. This lander is designed to have soft landing on the surface of moon at a touchdown of 2 m/s. It also has capability to communicate with Orbiter and IDSN at Bangalore.

Fig.4. Lander communicating with Earth (Source: ISRO)

Pragyan Rover

Pragyan is a six wheeled rover as shown in Fig.5 that is used to capture Moon’s surface and send the collected data to Lander. It uses solar energy for its operation.

Fig.5. Rover (Source: ISRO)

Working Model

GSLV Mark- III rocket lifts off from Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota carrying Orbiter, Lander, and Rover. Once the rocket has entered into Low Earth Orbit, the payload separates from rocket and panels of the module opens. Then the module starts moving towards Earth-to-Moon transfer orbit.

Next, module gets captured by Moon’s gravitational force and starts orbiting around Moon. During this time, the Orbiter scans the surface of the Moon as shown in Fig.6 using its Terrain Mapping Camera and Dual Frequency Radio (DFR) device that operates at L and S bands. So using this DFR, the Orbiter finds the correct place for water sources. Once the Orbiter has found the place, the Lander gets separated from Orbiter and proceeds towards soft-landing on the Moon.

Fig.6. Orbiter scanning Moon’s surface (Source: ISRO)

After landing, the Rover comes out of the lander and starts exploring the surface of the moon. Rover blasts Alpha particle X-rays to find the concentration of elements beneath the ground and perform series of trials to study Moon’s characteristics. The collected data is then transmitted to Earth by Lander.

What it brings to INDIA?

Chandrayaan-2 success makes India to be the first country in the world to reach south pole of Moon and explore the surface using Rover.

It helps scientists at ISRO to better understand origin and evolution of Moon and is a promising test-bed to demonstrate technologies required for deep-space missions.

Chandrayaan-2 success has made India’s emergence in the Lunar Launch Market.

Chandrayaan-2: A Journey to Date with Moon