Category Man and the Moon

          Chandrayaan 2 does have a Russian connection. ISRO had made an agreement to work with Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency for the development of Chandrayaan 2. By an agreement made on 12 November, 2007, the two agencies signed to share the responsibilities of the lunar mission.

          ISRO was to take the major responsibility of building the orbiter and rover while Roscosmos was supposed to develop the lander. The government of India chaired by Manmohan Singh approved this pact in September, 2008. Within a year, the design of the spacecraft was completed and was approved by the scientists from both the countries after a joint review.

Picture Credit : Google

          Chandrayaan 2 was launched with the help of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III. It is popularly known as GSLV Mk III.

          GSLV Mk III is a three-stage medium-lift launch vehicle developed by the ISRO. It is a multi-purpose launch vehicle, initially designed to launch communication satellites into a geostationary orbit. It is now identified as the launch vehicle for manned missions under the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme. It has a higher payload capacity than GSLV Mk 2. It can carry a payload up to 10,000 kilograms to the Low Earth Orbit and 4,000 kilograms to the Geostationary Transfer Orbit.

Picture Credit : Google

          Chandrayaan 2 carried a total of fourteen payloads- eight for the orbiter, four for the lander, and two for the rover. Though NASA and the European Space Agency initially planned to provide scientific instruments, ISRO had to reject them due to weight restrictions.

          In fact, ISRO in 2010 made it clear that it won’t be carrying foreign payloads. However, a month before its launch, NASA made an agreement with ISRO in which it was decided to carry a small retro-reflector developed by the NASA. This was added to the lander’s payload, which contained other instruments designed for measuring seismic activity, determining the elemental composition of the lunar surface, mapping the lunar surface, studying electron density and so on.

Picture Credit : Google

          The third module of Chandrayaan 2, the Pragyan rover is a robotic vehicle with six wheels. It weighs 27 kilograms and is designed to operate on solar power.

          Pragyan rover was built to perform a detailed on-site analysis of the lunar surface and transmit the data to the lander. It was expected to work for one lunar day, moving at a speed of 1 centimetre per second. Two of its wheels have the ISRO logo and India’s emblem that would leave a patterned track on the Moon. It contains two payloads and was designed to travel a distance of 500 metres.

Picture Credit : Google

          Chandrayaan 2 paid tribute to Vikram Sarabhai, the founder of the Indian space programme by naming the lander Vikram. 2019 marks Vikram Sarabhai’s 100th birth anniversary. It was designed to function for one lunar day that is 14 Earth days. It weighed 1,471 kilograms.

          Vikram lander contained a total of five engines and a set of scientific instruments. It was supposed to detach from the orbiter and get into a low lunar orbit in order to deploy the rover. After detaching the rover, the lander was supposed to stay on the lunar surface for further scientific explorations for fifteen days. Unfortunately, Vikram could not attain soft-landing, it crash landed instead. The connection with the lander was lost initially. Though the lander was later spotted through thermal imaging, its condition is not known.

Picture Credit : Google

          Chandrayaan 2 had three components- an orbiter, a lander and a rover.

          The orbiter carried eight scientific instruments. Out of these, two are improvised versions of the instruments on Chandrayaan 1. The orbiter’s structure was manufactured by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. It weighed 2,379 kilograms and was designed to work for the span of a year.

          The orbiter was designed to make scientific observations of the Moon. The Orbiter High Resolution Camera made high resolution observation of the landing sites before the separation of the rover and the lander.

          The orbiter transmits the information collected by the lander and rover back to Earth; it is capable of communicating with the Indian Deep Space Network. It orbits around 100 kilometres above the lunar surface. The orbiter works on solar energy and was expected to last for 7.5 years.

Picture Credit : Google