Chandrayaan 2 mission will make India 4th country after the US, Russia and China
SRIHARIKOTA (Andhra Pradesh): The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched a billion dreams into space on Monday with the lift-off of the Chandrayaan 2 lunar probe. The mission, launched onboard the heavy-lift rocket GSLV-MkIII, nicknamed Baahubali, will land a rover near the unexplored lunar southern pole.
In visuals, scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation’s control room closely watched the rocket as it gained speed and headed towards the outer atmosphere, propelled by the massive thrust from the powerful 640-tonne rocket.
Minutes later, the rocket successfully put Chandrayaan 2 into Earth’s orbit – and a booming applause reverberated inside the control room as the scientists who have been working hard for the mission congratulated one another, hugged and shook hands.
The three-component spacecraft weighing 3,850 kg comprises an orbiter, the lander and the rover. The Rs 978-crore Chandrayan 2 will take 48 days to accomplish the task of landing on the Moon through meticulously planned orbital phases.
Billed as the most complex and prestigious mission ever undertaken by the ISRO since its inception, Chandrayaan 2 will make India the fourth country to soft land on the lunar surface after Russia, the United States and China.
The Chandrayaan-2 has 13 payloads in total with eight of them in the orbiter, three payloads in Vikram and two in Pragyan. Five payloads are from India, three from Europe, two from the US and one from Bulgaria. A Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) of NASA is among the payloads and is aimed at understanding dynamics of Earth’s Moon system and deriving clues on Lunar interior.
About 16 minutes after the lift-off, the GSLV MkIII will inject Chandrayan-2 into 170 x 40400 km Earth orbit. From then onwards, the mission will witness a series of manoeuvres by scientists to carry out different phases of the mission.
– For the first 17 days from lift-off, the spacecraft will be in Earth-bound phase before its orbit is finally raised to over 1.05 lakh km.
– After that, it will be nudged into the Lunar Transfer Trajectory taking it to the proximity of Moon in the next two days.
– Then gradually over the next few days it will be brought to 100 X 100 km circular orbit when the lander will separate.
– After another few days of orbiting, it will make a soft landing at a chosen place on Lunar surface.
With Chandrayaan-2, in which home grown technology is deployed, scientists aim to expand India’s footprint in space, shed light on unexplored section of Moon — the South Pole region, enhance knowledge about space, stimulate advancement of technology and promote global alliances.
“I am extremely happy to announce that GSLV Mark 3 successfully injected the Chandrayaan 2 into orbit… It is the beginning of a historical journey for India… We fixed a serious technical snag and ISRO bounced back with flying colours,” ISRO Chairman K Sivan said, drawing loud applause from the scientists gathered around him at the control centre.
The GSLV Mark 3 – ISRO’s largest and most powerful rocket – is 44 metres long or as tall as a 15-storey building. The 20-hour countdown for the launch of the Rs. 1,000-crore mission began Sunday evening at 6.43 pm.
The rocket propelled into space an orbiter, a lander ‘Vikram’ (named after ISRO founder and eminent Indian scientist Vikram Sarabhai) and a moon rover ‘Pragyaan’. Once the Vikram lander separates, it will head to a region on the moon that is little explored till date – most lunar landings have taken place in the northern hemisphere or in the equatorial region.
A mission by China landed in the northernmost part, followed by Russia’s Luna missions. Most of the American lunar landings, including Apollo missions, were in the Moon’s equatorial region.(With Agency Inputs ).
