Anusree Jana, Kolkata : Chandrayaan 2, India’s second mission to the Moon has a successful start off, at 2.43pm on July 22. Chandrayaan 2 is the successor to India’s first and successful lunar mission Chandrayaan 1 in 2008.
Chandrayaan 2 was supposed to be ready by 2012 according to the original schedule and the Lander for the mission was supposed to come from Russia’s Space Agency but Russia withdrew as one of their similarly designed Lander for the mission was having a problem. As a result, India designed everything from the Launcher, Lander and the Rover which took time for the whole mission to be ready.
Chandrayaan 2 includes Launcher, Orbiter, Lander, and Rover. The whole technology for Chandrayaan 2 is indigenously designed and the Launcher GSLV Mark III is the most powerful launcher to date.
The Orbiter will observe the Moon’s surface and communicate between earth and Chandrayaan 2’s Lander, Vikram.
Chandrayaan 2 Lander is the first lander to soft-land on the South-pole area of The Moon and the Rover is six-wheeled, AI-powered and work on solar energy. The Lander and Rover will observe the Moon’s surface and study the Moon’s atmosphere and map the elements and minerals there.
Chandrayaan 2 will break several of India’s records. First of all, it is completely domestically designed and produced and second of all it is First to soft-land on the moon’s South-pole area. Also, it is the first domestically designed technology to explore lunar terrain.
This mission can benefit not only India but also human beings as a whole due to the knowledge it can garner from deep space journeys, atmosphere, and several other valuable information.
The moon can provide us with the best linkage to earth’s early history. Also, the soft-landing will give the Rover the chance to examine the undisturbed lunar surface and further chance to study the origin and evolution of the Moon.
This is the chance for Chandrayaan 2 to confirm Chandrayaan 1’s finding of water on the Moon as a larger section of the Moon’s South-pole stays in the shadow than North-pole. Also, the South-pole area has craters that are cold-traps, containing fossil record of the early solar system.
Chandrayaan 2 will use Lander (Vikram) and Rover(Pragyyan) to try soft-landing in a high-plane between two craters-Manzinus C and Simpelius Nat a latitude of about 70° south.
Image Courtesy – ISRO
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