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BENGALURU: The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is yet to reestablish contact with the Vikram lander, three days after the lunar probe made a “hard landing” during its final descent to the moon, according to scientists aware of the developments.
The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, which has eight instruments on board including a high-resolution camera that can take pictures as small as 0.3 metres across, has captured images of Vikram on the lunar surface. The lander was found ‘tilted’ c ..
his could have destabilised the vehicle, causing it to tumble down on to the moon’s surface, scientists said.
During a preliminary review, Isro scientists had also deliberated whether there were “gaps in the understanding of the lunar atmosphere” closer to its surface. Such data is not available in the public domain and the space agencies of Russia, the US and China — that have landed probes on the moon — do not share this i ..
The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, which has eight instruments on board including a high-resolution camera that can take pictures as small as 0.3 metres across, has captured images of Vikram on the lunar surface. The lander was found ‘tilted’ c ..
his could have destabilised the vehicle, causing it to tumble down on to the moon’s surface, scientists said.
During a preliminary review, Isro scientists had also deliberated whether there were “gaps in the understanding of the lunar atmosphere” closer to its surface. Such data is not available in the public domain and the space agencies of Russia, the US and China — that have landed probes on the moon — do not share this i ..
Chandrayaan-2: India's Orbiter-Lander-Rover Mission
(Image: © India Space Research Organisation)
Editor's note: India successfully launched the Chandrayaan-2 mission on July 22, 2019. Chandrayaan-2 arrived in lunar orbit on Aug. 19 EDT (Aug. 20 IST). During the Sept. 6 moon landing attempt by the Vikram lander, ISRO officials lost contact with the Vikram moon lander on Sept. 6 (Sept. 7 IST) as the probe was just 1.3 miles (2.1 kilometers) above the lunar surface. Read our latest story: India's Silent Moon Lander Could Be in One Piece After 'Hard Landing': Reports
India's Space Program: Complete Coverage
India's Space Program: Complete Coverage
Chandrayaan-2 is India's planned second mission to the moon, which is expected to launch in 2019. It is a follow-up mission from the Chandrayaan-1 mission that assisted in confirming the presence of water/hydroxyl on the moon in 2009. Chandrayaan-2 will launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India, aboard a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket.
According to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the new mission will consist of an orbiter, a lander and a rover. The orbiter will perform mapping from an altitude of 100 kilometers (62 miles), while the lander will make a soft landing on the surface and send out the rover.
Development and science
Initially, ISRO planned to partner with Russia to perform Chandrayaan-2. The two agencies signed an agreement in 2007 to launch the orbiter and lander in 2013. Russia later pulled out of the agreement, however, according to a news report from The Hindu. The Russian lander's construction was delayed after the December 2011 failure of Roscosmos' Phobos-Grunt mission to the Martian moon of Phobos, the report stated.
Russia subsequently pulled out of Chandrayaan-2 altogether, citing financial issues. Some reports stated that NASA and the European Space Agency were interested in participating, but ISRO proceeded with the mission on its own.
The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter will circle the moon and provide information about its surface, ISRO stated. "The payloads will collect scientific information on lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, lunar exosphere and signatures of hydroxyl and water-ice," ISRO said on its website. The mission will also send a small, 20-kilogram (44 lbs.), six-wheeled rover to the surface; the rover will move semi-autonomously, examining the lunar regolith's composition.
This is the list of instruments on the orbiter, according to the Planetary Society:
- Terrain Mapping Camera 2 (TMC-2), which will map the lunar surface in three dimensions using two on-board cameras. A predecessor instrument called TMC flew on Chandrayaan-1.
- Collimated Large Array Soft X-ray Spectrometer (CLASS), which will map the abundance of minerals on the surface. A predecessor instrument called CIXS (sometimes written as C1XS) flew on Chandrayaan-1.
- Solar X-ray Monitor (XSM), which looks at emissions of solar X-rays.
- Chandra's Atmospheric Composition Explorer (ChACE-2), which is a neutral mass spectrometer. A predecessor instrument called CHACE flew on Chandrayaan-1's Moon Impact Probe.
- Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), which will map the surface in radio waves. Some of its design is based on Chandrayaan-1's MiniSAR.
- Imaging Infra-Red Spectrometer (IIRS), which will measure the abundance of water/hydroxl on the surface.
- Orbiter High Resolution Camera (OHRC) to examine the surface, particularly the landing site of the lander and rover.
The lander's instruments include:
- Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA), to look for moonquakes.
- Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE), to examine the surface's thermal properties.
- Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA-Langmuir Probe), to look at plasma density on the surface.
The rover will carry two science instruments to look at the composition of the surface: the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) and the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS).
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