Space….! Stop whatever you are thinking, calm your mind, relax and focus.
What comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘Space’?
Is it the space around you? Or is it the vast space on this beautiful Earth?
Well, that’s not the space we are interested to talk about. Look up my friend, look deep into the endless ‘Space’ that beholds the mysteries of very existence. As you wonder what this article is about, our Earth would have completed many rotations, moved into another segment of revolution around the Sun and likewise the Moon would have done the same with respect to the Earth.
That’s beauty of ‘Space’, it makes you wonder!
Throughout the history of human race, man has been curious, evolving and exploring, right from discovering (or making) fire to sending a roadster into space. This human nature has led to another mission, an Indian Mission to explore South Polar Region of the Moon, the Chandrayaan-2.
Space programs don’t happen overnight, it takes years and sometimes even decades to make an idea into reality. This was true in case of India, when it decided to plant its feet in the field of space explorations. The idea was first conceptualized in the year 1999 during a meet of Indian Academy of Sciences. Later on, The Astronautical Society of India took forward the idea in 2000. Soon, it was decided that Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) would set up the National Lunar Mission Task Force which concluded that ISRO has the technical expertise to carry out an Indian mission to the Moon and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced the Chandrayaan-1 project on course in his Independence Day speech on 15 August 2003.
Chandrayaan-1, India's first mission to Moon, was launched successfully on October 22, 2008 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, India. The spacecraft was orbiting around the Moon at a height of 100 km from the lunar surface for chemical, mineralogical and photo-geologic mapping of the Moon. The spacecraft carried 11 scientific instruments built in India, USA, UK, Germany, Sweden, and Bulgaria. Chandrayaan-1 operated for 312 days as opposed to the intended two years but the mission achieved 95% of its planned objectives. The satellite made more than 3400 orbits around the moon and the mission was concluded when the communication with the spacecraft was lost on August 28, 2009.
Chandrayaan-2 is the second adventure of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which is a decade long scientific research and engineering development, to explore the moon after Chandrayaan-1. The basic purpose of this mission is to “Expand the Boundaries of Human Knowledge” by unraveling the mysteries in the south polar region of the moon, which may give us insight on origin about the Moon and other fascinating details about the Universe. This mission aims to inspire future generations to take up space explorations to greater extent.
Chandrayaan-2 lifted off at 1443 hours (IST) on 22 July 2019 (technical glitch on the launcher postponed the scheduled launch on 15 July 2019 at 0251 hours IST) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, India. It was launched by a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk III) which includes a lunar orbiter, lander, and rover, all developed in India. It is expected to land on the lunar surface on September 7, 2019, which will make India 4th successfully country to soft-land (landing that does not cause any destruction or damage to the space vehicle or anything on board) on the moon after US, USSR, and Chinese space agencies.
12th November, 2007, two space agencies: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), signed an agreement to work on Chandrayaan-2. The lunar mission was approved on 18th September, 2008 by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with ISRO taking the responsibility of building and developing the orbiter and rover, and Roscosmos providing the lander. With numerous delays and Russia stating its inability to provide the lander in time, India decided to develop the lander independently. This made the launcher, orbiter, lander, and rover a complete Indian make!
The ‘GSLV Mk-III’ will carry Chandrayaan-2 to its designated orbit, the orbiter will orbit the Moon at an altitude of 100 km (62 mi) and is capable of communicating with Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) at Byalalu, Bengaluru, as well as the Vikram Lander. The mission life of the Orbiter is one year.
The lander ‘Vikram’, named after Dr. Vikram A Sarabhai, the Father of the Indian Space Programme, will detach from the orbiter and descend to a lunar orbit. Vikram lander will make a soft landing, deploy the rover, and perform some scientific activities for one lunar day, which is equivalent to about 14 Earth days.
The rover ‘Pragyan’ (means ‘Wisdom’ in Sanskrit) operates on solar power. The rover will move on 6 wheels traversing 500 meter distance on the lunar surface at the rate of 1 cm per second, performing on-site chemical analysis and sending the data to the lander, which will relay it to the Earth station. Pragyan is expected to function for one lunar day. Since it is operating on solar power its lifespan could be more than what was planned.
Chandrayaan-2 will use the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover to attempt a soft landing in a high plain between two craters — Manzinus C and Simpelius N — at a latitude of about 70° south. If successful, Chandrayaan-2 will be the second mission to soft land near the lunar South Pole after the Chang'e 4, a Chinese spacecraft, which landed in such a region on 3 January 2019.
All scientific experiments on the lunar surface will be for 1 lunar day (14 Earth days) and all orbital experiments will be operational for 1 year. As of June 2019, the mission has an allocated cost of ₹978 crore (approximately US$141 million) which includes ₹603 crore for space segment and ₹375 crore as launch costs on GSLV Mk III. Its predecessor, Chandrayaan-1 was estimated at ₹386 crore (US$56 million).
Moon is the closest celestial object to Earth, which means it is a great link to finding Earth’s early history and also that of the Universe! Chandrayaan-1 showed us the evidence of water molecules; the south polar region of the moon is very interesting as it is a large surface which stays in the shadow. It can give us hope of finding more water in this region of the moon and craters that are cold traps, may contain a record of the early Solar System.
With Chandrayaan-1 giving volumes of information about the lunar surface such as: ‘Moon was once completely molten’; ‘ISRO announcing that the Moon Impact Probe, another instrument on board Chandrayaan-1, had discovered water on the Moon just before impact and had discovered it 3 months before NASA's M3 ‘; among others, we have to wait for Chandrayaan-2 to make ground breaking revelations about the Moon and the Universe. With India slated to launch a manned mission into space in 2022 and a prospective Chandrayaan-3 in 2024, we just have to watch the reaction of the entire world that once regarded India as a ‘Third World Country’, to turn into a Space Superpower!
What does the future hold for the human race? Only time will tell!
Mera Bharat Mahaan. Jai Hind!