ISRO begins simulation tests for Chandrayaan-II landing mission

ISRO has started the conduction of tests for its second moon mission Chandrayaan-II facility in Challakere, about 200 km from Bengaluru in Karnataka.

According to ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar, different craters which resemble the surface of moon, have been created on the ground to test the sensors of Chandrayaan-2. Mr Kumar also added that an aircraft carrying some of the instruments was being flown over the simulated area.

Chandrayaan-2 is India’s second mission to the Moon. The mission is an upgraded version of the previous Chandrayaan-1 mission. It consists of an orbiter, lander and rover configuration.

The orbiter with scientific payloads will orbit around the Moon. The project, first conceived as a joint mission with Russia has become India’s independent programme.

The lander will soft-land on the Moon at a specified site and deploy the rover. It will perform mineralogical and elemental studies of the lunar surface once the lander soft-lands on the moon.