Chandrayaan 2 – India’s Second Lunar Mission

Chandrayaan 2 was the follow-up mission after Chandrayaan 1. It was India’s second mission to the Moon and ISRO’s first attempt at performing soft landing on the lunar surface. The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) MK III rocket weighing 3290 kg took off on 22 July 2019 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. It was due to land on 7 September 2019. The earlier date was 14 July 2019, but it was postponed because of a helium leak. 

Objectives of Chandrayaan 2 – India’s Second Lunar Mission

India wanted to study the southern pole of the lunar surface. No country in the world has ever launched its spacecraft on the southern side of the Moon. The main objectives of the mission were as follows:

1. To find the existence of water and the Hydroxyl group. 
2. India independently designed all the Chandrayaan 2 components and wanted to experiment with soft landing on the lunar surface. 
3. To study the topology and exosphere of the Moon.
4. To study the mineralogy, surface chemical structure, the lunar atmosphere, and thermo-physical elements to study the origin and evolution of the Moon.
5. Create a three-dimensional (3D) map of the lunar surface.
6. The Chandrayaan 2 components were designed to measure the thickness of the lunar regolith.  

Chandrayaan 2 Components

The distance between the Earth and the Moon is around 3.84 lakh kilometres. The rocket would need fuel to reach the Moon, but India opted to use the Earth’s gravity to transport the spacecraft to the Moon. The Chandrayaan program – India’s lunar mission involved an orbiter, a lander, and a rover built indigenously by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Let’s discuss these in-depth below:

1. Orbiter

The mission’s 95% of work was to be done by the orbiter. It was launched in the Earth’s orbit and roamed around the Earth multiple times to escape its gravity by using very little fuel. On 19 August 2019, Chandrayaan 2 reached the lunar orbit. It is currently orbiting the Moon in a polar orbit at an altitude of 100 km. 

The orbiter has several payloads attached to it for different purposes, such as: 

• Solar X-ray monitor to map the major elements of the Moon by looking at the emissions of the solar X-rays.
• Dual-frequency radar to find water molecules by mapping the surface in radio waves.
• Atmospheric Compositional Explorer 2 to study the Moon’s exosphere.
• Collimated Spectrometer to map the elements of minerals on the lunar surface and a terrain mapping camera to create a 3-D map to study mineralogy better.

2. Vikram Lander

It was named after Dr Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the Indian space program. The lander was designed to eject from the orbiter and achieve a soft landing on the lunar surface by declining its velocity while approaching the Moon. 

The different payloads in the lander are as follows:

• An instrument to measure the lunar seismic activity near the landing site.
• Surface Thermophysical Experiment to study the thermal properties of the Moon’s surface.
• Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA- Langmuir Probe) to examine the density or variation of plasma on the surface.

3. Pragyan Rover

The word Pragyan means wisdom in Sanskrit. Inside the lander, a six-wheeled rover aims to come out after the successful landing. The rover was designed to cover the 500 m distance at one km per second and collect the soil or rock samples for on-site chemical analysis. 

The different payloads in the rover are as follows:

• Stereoscopic camera to capture data.
• Pragyan also consists of two scientific instruments- Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) and Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) to look at the composition of water beneath the surface of the Moon.

Chandrayaan 2 – India’s Second Lunar Mission Journey

The Chandrayaan program – India’s lunar mission commenced on 22 July 2019. The spacecraft was to launch in the lower electrical orbit of the Earth. On 19 August 2019, the orbiter was in lunar orbit. The orbiter detached the lander from itself to land on the Moon, but when it was 2.1 km away from its surface, all contact was lost. The last phase could not be completed. The orbiter has scanned the last known location of the lander, but for unknown reasons, there has been no contact with the lander.

Conclusion

The orbiter is still in the Moon’s orbit and is collecting data. India’s first attempt to soft land on the lunar surface was unsuccessful, but the spirits are still high. India is all ready to launch its Chandrayaan 3 program very soon. The Chandrayaan 3 will only have a lander and rover as the orbiter of the Chandrayaan 2 program is already there.