On July 15th, scientists from ISRO will attempt what no country in the world has managed to achieve- Landing at the Lunar South Pole. Chandrayaan 2 is India’s Lunar mission & is attempting to study Earth’s closest celestial object.

Objectives of Chandrayaan 2

• Extensive mapping of the lunar surface
• Study variants in the composition of the lunar surface
• Trace Moon’s origin & evolution
• Trace evidence of Water molecules and distribution of lunar surface
• Study permanently shadowed South Pole
• Study craters on South Pole (cold traps) as it contains ‘fossilised record of Solar System’

Where will the Solar Mission land?

Using the Vikram Lander & Pragyan Rover, Chandrayaan 2 will attempt a soft landing between two craters – Manzinus C & Simplelius N at a latitude of 70° south. India is the fourth country to attempt soft landing on lunar surface

Watch video here

Parts of the Lunar Mission

Launcher- GSLV Mk-III

India’s most powerful launcher until today and is completely indegenous.

Orbiter

The orbiter is the relay component between the rover & scientists on ground. It will also observe the lunar surface

Lander: Vikram

Named after the father of Indian space program, Dr Vikram Sarabhai. The lander is designed to execute a soft landing & function for one lunar day (equal to 14 Earth days). Lander can communicate with ISDN in Bangalore, orbiter as well as the rover.

Rover- Pragyan

The 6 wheel robotic rover can travel upto 500m & works on solar energy. It can however only communicate with Lander

Expected landing:

After its launch on July 15, the mission will land on Moon by September 6th. The scientific experiment will be held for 14 days & the expected period for orbital experiment is one year.

Key payloads of Chandrayaan 2

1. Chandrayaan-2 Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer
2. Solar X-ray monitor
3. Synthetic Aperture Radar
4. Imaging IR Spectrometer
5. Chandrayaan-2 Atmospheric Compositional Explorer 2 Quadrupole Mass Analyzer
6. Terrain Mapping Camera-2
7. Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive Ionosphere and Atmosphere – Dual Frequency Radio Science experiment
8. Orbiter High Resolution Camer
9. Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity Seismometer
10. Chandra’s Surface Thermo-physical Experiment Thermal probe
11. RAMBHA-LP Langmuir probe
12. Laser retroreflector array
13. Laser induced Breakdown Spectroscope
14. Alpha Particle Induced X-ray Spectroscope