Chandrayaan 2 mission was a brave and complex mission as it brought together an Orbiter, Lander and Rover to explore the unexplored south pole of the Moon.
Since the launch of Chandrayaan 2 on July 22, 2019, not only India but the whole world watched its progress from one phase to the next with great expectations and excitement.
Chandrayaan 2 was a unique mission which aimed at studying not just one area of the Moon but all the areas combining the exosphere, the surface as well as the sub-surface of the moon in a single mission, tells a news release by ISRO.
The Orbiter has already been placed in its intended orbit around the Moon and shall enrich our understanding of the moon’s evolution and mapping of the minerals and water molecules in the Polar Regions, using its eight state-of-the-art scientific instruments.
The Orbiter camera is the highest resolution camera (0.3m) in any lunar mission so far and shall provide high resolution images which will be immensely useful to the global scientific community. The precise launch and mission management has ensured a long life of almost 7 years instead of the planned one year. The Vikram Lander followed the planned descent trajectory from its orbit of 35 km to just below 2 km above the surface. All the systems and sensors of the Lander functioned excellently until this point and proved many new technologies such as variable thrust propulsion technology used in the Lander.
ISRO also says that the success criteria was defined for each and every phase of the mission and till date 90 to 95% of the mission objectives have been accomplished and will continue contribute to Lunar science , notwithstanding the loss of communication with the Lander.
It is in this light that ISROs’s American counterpart NASA came out to support the Chandrayaan 2 mission and the hard-work that the finest of Indian scientists have put in. Telling ISRO that the NASA looks forward for tie-ups that would allow the two premier Institutions to explore solar system together, it also said that while Space is hard, yet ISRO’s commendable Chandrayaan 2 journey has also inspired it.
This is the official response by NASA as issued on Spetember 7th 2019:
Space is hard. We commend ISRO’s attempt to land their #Chandrayaan2 mission on the Moon’s South Pole. You have inspired us with your journey and look forward to future opportunities to explore our solar system together.
