Chandrayaan-2 Mission A ‘Technological Leap’, Says ISRO, Read Full Statement HERE

Contact with Vikram lander, and rover Pragyan housed inside, has been lost but the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) believe that Chandrayaan-2  - a highly complex mission -  represented a significant technological leap compared to the previous missions. “Chandrayaan-2 mission was a highly complex mission, which represented a significant technological leap compared to the previous missions of ISRO, which brought together an Orbiter, Lander and Rover to explore the unexplored south pole of the Moon,” the space agency said in the statement.

“This was a unique mission which aimed at studying not just one area of the Moon but all the areas combining the exosphere, the surface as well as the sub-surface of the moon in a single mission. The Orbiter has already been placed in its intended orbit around the Moon and shall enrich our understanding of the moon’s evolution and mapping of the minerals and water molecules in the Polar Regions, using its eight state-of-the-art scientific instruments. The Orbiter camera is the highest resolution camera (0.3m) in any lunar mission so far and shall provide high resolution images which will be immensely useful to the global scientific community,” it reads.

“The precise launch and mission management has ensured a long life of almost 7 years instead of the planned one year. The Vikram Lander followed the planned descent trajectory from its orbit of 35 km to just below 2 km above the surface. All the systems and sensors of the Lander functioned excellently until this point and proved many new technologies such as variable thrust propulsion technology used in the Lander,” it added.

The 1,471-kg lander of Chandrayaan-2 -- first Indian mission to explore the lunar terrain with home-grown technology—is named Vikram after Dr Vikram A Sarabhai, the father of the Indian space programme.

The lander was designed to execute a soft landing on the lunar surface, and to function for one lunar day, which is equivalent to about 14 earth days. Chandrayaan-2’s 27-kg rover is a six-wheeled robotic vehicle named Pragyan, which translates to ‘wisdom’ in Sanskrit.

It’s designed to travel up to 500 metres from the landing spot on the Moon and leverage solar energy for its functioning.

The lander carried three scientific payloads to conduct surface and subsurface science experiments, while the rover carried two payloads to enhance our understanding of the lunar surface, according to ISRO.

The mission life of the orbiter will be one year while that of the rover was to be one lunar day which is equal to 14 earth days.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The Orbiter camera is the highest resolution camera in any lunar mission so far.
• The precise launch and mission management has ensured a long life of almost 7 years.
• It’s designed to travel up to 500 metres from the landing spot on the Moon.