On July 22, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday scripted a history by launching Chandrayaan-2 successfully. With the successful launch of Chandrayaan-2, ISRO has taken a giant leap in aerospace sector too. And now, India's second moon mission 'Chandrayaan-2' left the earth's orbit and is moving towards the moon following the successful completion of a crucial manoeuvre by ISRO.
Today at 2.21 am, ISRO said that it has carried out a manoeuvre called 'Trans Lunar Insertion' (TLI), following which the spacecraft has successfully entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory.
In a tweet, ISRO said, "Today (August 14, 2019) after the Trans Lunar Insertion (TLI) maneuver operation, #Chandrayaan2 will depart from Earth's orbit and move towards the Moon (sic)."
"During the final orbit raising of the spacecraft around the earth, the liquid engine was fired for about 1203 seconds. With this, Chandrayaan-2 entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory," the Indian space agency added.
It is worth mentioning here that the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft is expected to land on lunar surface on September 7, 2019.
The Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft weighs approximately 3290 kilograms and it would launched by the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk-III (or GSLV Mk) rocket. Dubbed as ‘Baahubali’, the GSLV Mk-III rocket which stands 43 metres tall. In Chandrayaan-2, a total of 13 payloads are distributed across the three modules where the Orbiter and Vikram Lander are stacked upon each other whereas the Pragyan Rover is housed inside the lander.
Chandrayaan-2 has three elements including the Rover, the Lander and the Orbiter. As soon as the spacecraft will make a soft landing on the moon, the lander will separate from the Orbiter and then perform a series of complex manoeuvres comprising of tough braking and fine braking.
The lander, named Vikram, will land near the Moon’s South Pole and then it will then carry out experiments on Lunar surface for 1 Lunar day. A single lunar day is equal to 14 Earth days. However. Orbiter will continue its mission for a duration of one year.
The historic Chandrayaan-2 mission will target a completely unexplored section of the Moon that is, its “South Polar region - Aitken Basin”. By conducting topographical studies and mineralogical analyses alongside a few other experiments on the Moon’s Surface, the ISRO’s ambitious mission aimed to get a better understanding of the Moon’s origin and its evolution.
Importantly, if successful, the mission will make India the fourth country after Russia, the US and China to pull off a soft landing on the Moon.
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