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Mission Moon - Chandrayaan - 2

Successful Launch of Chandrayaan 2 - Outlined in Assembly

Chandrayaan-2

India's second moon mission Chandrayaan-2 aimed at landing a rover on unchartered Lunar South Pole was successfully launched on July 22, 2019 at 2.43pm from the second launchpad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh with the country's most powerful Geosynchronous satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) - Mark III. Launch of Chandrayaan-2 was originally scheduled on July 15, 2019 at 2:51 IST but was called off due to a technical snag noticed at around one hour before launch.

The primary objectives of Chandrayaan-2 are to demonstrate the ability to soft-land on the lunar surface and operate a robotic rover on the surface.

Chandrayaan-2 includes an orbiter, a lander, and a rover.

The orbiter will orbit the Moon at an altitude of 100 km. The orbiter carries five scientific instruments. Three of them are new, while two others are improved versions of those flown on Chandrayaan-1.

The mission's lander is called Vikram named after Vikram Sarabhai the father of the Indian space programme. The lander-Vikram will land near South Pole of the moon on Sep 7, 2019. The Vikram lander will detach from the orbiter and descend to a lunar orbit of 30 km × 100 km using its liquid main engines. It will then perform a comprehensive check of all its on-board systems before attempting a soft landing, deploy the rover.

The mission's rover is called Pragyan . The rover's mass is about 27 kg and will operate on solar power. The rover will move on 6 wheels traversing 500 meters on the lunar surface at the rate of 1 cm per second, performing on-site chemical analysis for a period of 1 Lunar day which is equal to 14 Earth days and sending the data to the lander, which will relay it to the Earth station. The approximate combined mass of the lander and rover is 1,471 kg.

This mission will help us gain a better understanding of the origin and evolution of the Moon by conducting detailed topographical studies, comprehensive mineralogical analyses, and a host of other experiments on the lunar surface. And also to explore the discoveries made by Chandrayaan 1, such as the presence of water molecules on the Moon and new rock types with unique chemical composition.

On completion of this successful mission, India will become the first country ever to achieve a soft, controlled landing so close to the moon’s south pole, and the fourth country ever to land softly on the lunar surface, joining Russia, the United States, and China.

The moon mission has set another milestone, first in ISRO’s history both key leadership positions are held by women. Muthayya Vanitha, the mission’s project director, previously worked on Mangalyaan, and Ritu Karidhal, Chandrayaan-2’s mission director.