Chandrayaan 2: Chandrayaan 2 was launched on July 22 from the Satish Dawan Space Center, Sriharikota launch pad from which I Chandrayaan 1 had taken off. Instead of using the up dated PSLV rocket used career, the spacecraft made use of the advanced Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, Mark III (GSLV Mk III).
The spacecraft was expected to land on the Moon on September 7, 2019. According to NASA, the Moon’s polar craters have the Solar System’s lowest temperature. It would have been the first probe in the world to land on the lunar south- pole. The main mission objective was the exploration of lunar water near the polar region.Also, ISRO planned to test the capabilities of its lunar rover named Pragyan. Weighing 27kg, the rover operates on solar power and travels at a speed of 1cm per second. It will continuously perform chemical analysis of the soil and send back to the lander -Vikram, and update the ground station.
It was expected that the rover will operate for 14 days but the duration may vary since Pragyan uses solar power to keep itself up.
Unlike last time, ISRO declined to carry any foreign payloads due to weight restrictions. But in June 2019, it agreed to carry a small laser retroreflector from NASA. The orbiter will carry eight payloads, while the Lander is carrying three and the rover just two. However, the orbiter will be hovering over the moon at a distance of 100km and performing passive experiments just like it did on Chandrayaan 1.
Chandrayaan 2 successfully entered space. The most critical part was the auto soft-landing. But unfortunately the Rover lost contact with the base station. On 7 September 2019, the lander, Vikram tried to make a soft landing on the moon but when it was 2 kms away from the surface, the ISRO lost contact with Vikram.
Many efforts have been made to restore communication but the efforts have not been fruitful. The rover has not been able to come out of the lander and thus, it cannot gather important information related to the Moon. Due to this, the data that was supposed to be collected by Vikram and Pragyaan cannot be collected.
If the spacecraft had landed successfully on the Moon, India would have been the fourth country to join the moon club after China, the United States and Russia.
The entire Chandrayaan 2 mission cost approximately $141 million. This is less than every installment in the Marvel Avenger series.
Unlike Chandrayaan 1, the stakes were pretty high this time since the spacecraft was also carrying a lunar rover, orbiter and a lander. Moreover, Chandrayaan 2 used indigenously manufactured components and design vehicles for the first time.
Even if the mission ended in failure, ISRO will have a lot to learn from its experiences, motivating it to do better in the future. India is the only country in the world which successfully completed its maiden interplanetary mission to Mars.
The mission has achieved a 95% success with the placement of the orbiter in the moon’s orbit. It will take images of the moon for one year and send the data to earth. The launch is significant for a number of reasons, including the fact that, for the first time in Indian history, a space mission is spearheaded by two women. Chandrayaan-2 is led by Muthayya Vanitha and Ritu Karidhal, the project director and mission director.
