Chandrayaan-2 Mission

• 13 Jun 2019

For the first time in the history of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), two women will head the Chandrayaan-2 mission.

• Ritu Kridhal and M Vanitha are leading as project and mission directors respectively for Chandrayaan-2 mission.

Chandrayaan-2 Mission

Chandrayaan-2 is India's second lunar exploration mission after Chandrayaan-1, developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation.

Objectives

• Quantify the water available on the moon’s surface.
• Map its topography, to explore chemicals and minerals such as magnesium, iron, and Helium.
• Study topmost part of the lunar atmosphere.

Significance

• Global Power: If successful, India will be the fourth country (After Russia, China, and the USA) to land a rover on the moon.
  
  • India will be the first country to land on the southern pole of the moon.
  • This would give ISRO opportunity to name that site on the moon.
• Indigenous mission: 13 instruments from India, one instrument from US space agency, NASA.
• Future Space Exploration: mission will also expand the country’s footprint in space as moon is the perfect test-bed for proving technologies required for future space exploration.

Complexities involved in a moon landing

• Trajectory accuracy: Ensuring trajectory accuracy while navigating 3.844 lakh km has its own challenges.
• Communication hurdle: Owing to the large distance from Earth, radio signals, which need to be picked up, would be weak.
• Lunar dust: Firing engines close to the lunar surface results in the backward flow of gases and dust, causing hindrance to deployment mechanism and damaging sensors.
• Extreme temperatures: A lunar day or night lasts 14 earth days, resulting in extreme surface temperature.
• Trans-lunar injection, capture: Series of engine burns to get close to the moon, intersection of probe and moon must be predicted in advance with accuracy.
• Orbiting: The lumpy lunar gravity influences the orbit of the spacecraft.