After a successful and ground breaking discovery made by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) through Chandrayaan mission. ISRO is taking another bold and ambitious step to land on South Polar region of the moon. It’s the first time any country is attempting to discover the mysteries of the darkest place found on moon. It’s a historical event and the first step towards exploring the undiscovered region of the moon.
In recent times, India has emerged to be a dominating factor and one of the torch bearers in space expeditions. India has from time to time proved each and every country on earth that space explorations can be carried out at a effectively, efficiently and at a reasonable cost.
In this blog, I will try to tell everything that a person should know about Chandrayaan 2 mission:
Ever since, India made a ground breaking discovery of water on the surface of moon through Chandrayaan 1 – a new ideology or prespective of Moon among scientists and researchers have been developed. Chandrayaan 2 mission is being viewed as one of the most critical missions to unveil the mysteries of the moon and to provide an entirely new information regarding the early stages of our Solar System Development. It will also cause a paradigm shift in how lunar expeditions are approached for years to come, propelling further voyages into the farthest frontiers.
The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-III (GSLV Mk-III) alias “Bahubali” will carry Chandrayaan 2 to its designated orbit. Chandrayaan-2 will be launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota onboard Bahubali, at 2:43 PM on 22nd July 2019.
It is worthy to mention here that GSLV Mk-III aka Bahubali is entirely Made in India, thus continuing the most renowned and ambitious “Make in India” project of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri. Narendra Modi.
To know more about GSLV Mk-III
The first 16 minutes 22 seconds shall be the one of the crucial phase of the mission. It is the time within which Bahubali shall carry Chandrayaan 2 in space and separation of Chandrayaan 2 from Bahubali.
Following is the flight sequence of the first 16 minutes 22 seconds:
Chandrayaan 2 is composed of an orbiter, a rover named as “Pragyan” and India’s first lander capable of executing a ‘soft landing’ called as ” Vikram”.
The Orbiter weights 2,392 Kg and has 1 year of mission life in lunar orbit.
It is capable of communicating with the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) at Byalalu, as well as with the Vikram lander and thus will act as communicator between Vikram and Earth
Again it is worthy to mention that all the hardware in the form of Orbiter, Lander and Rover as well as sophisticated software used to run the hardware is totally “Made in India”, thus reducing dependence of ISRO on other countries space organizations like “NASA”,”Roscosmos” etc.
Vikram has a mission life of 1 lunar day which is equivalent to 14 Earth days.
It is also capable of communicating with IDSN at Byalalu near Bangalore, as well as with the Orbiter and Pragyan rover. The lander is designed to execute a soft landing on the lunar surface at a touchdown velocity of 2 metres per second.
The lander is expected to land at a High plain between two craters, Manzinus C and Simpelius N
Pragyan can travel upto 500 metres at a speed of 1 centimetre per second. It is capable of communicating to lander and uses solar energy for its functioning
Chandrayaan 2 is carrying with it total 14 scientific experiment payouts. The name and function of that payout is given hereunder:
Chandrayaan 2 will land on Moon at Day 54 of the mission i.e. on 6th September 2019. The entire mission will cost about Rs.987 crore (i.e. approximately $ 144 million). Further, it is worthy to mention that 30% of the entire team composed of women which indicates a positive and proud sign of women empowerment in India.
Following are the 3 mission objectives of Chandrayaan 2:
- Expand India’s footprint in space
- Inspire a future generation of scientists, engineers and explorers
- Surpass International Aspirations.
After providing all the information about Chandrayaan 2 mission, the only question that’s left to answer is “Why Moon is chosen?” “Is it a Race?”
The Answer is quite simple and a rational non-biased person can easily understand that Moon is the closest cosmic body where space discovery can be attempted and documented. In order to aim for further space exploration for e.g. Titan or even exo planets, one must have sufficient knowledge of space. I have not used word “complete”, since no one can possess complete information about space atleast in near future. The South polar region of space is a site which has remained untouched, and thus can answer many important questions about the early stages of our solar system. Thus, it was quite logical and rational step at least from space exploration perspective to explore the mysterious South polar region of space before trying to attempt any mission on our neighbouring planet i.e. Mars.
I hope that you like the above article, in case of any suggestion, feel free to give your feedback.
G.R.House of Knowledge 