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- The Indian Space Research Organisation has scheduled the launch of Chandrayaan 2 mission between 9th and 16thJuly. Chandrayaan 2 is India’s second lunar mission which will be launched aboard a GSLV-Mk III rocket.
- Chandrayaan 2 will comprise of an Orbiter, Lander named ‘Vikram’ and Rover named ‘Pragyan’. The orbiter will circle the moon and provide information about its surface, while the lander will make a soft landing on the surface and send out the rover. The rover will be used mostly for in situ experiments.
- According to ISRO Chandrayaan-2 will be the most complex mission undertaken by ISRO. It is because the landing on moon involves multiple challenges.
- Firstly, ensuring trajectory accuracy is a major challenge. Since, the distance between moon and earth is large, navigating such a large distance poses many challenges as trajectory is influenced by the non-uniform gravity of the earth and moon, gravitational pull of other astronomical bodies, solar radiation pressure, and the moons true orbital motion.
- Secondly, deep space communication is a challenge, as owing to the large distance from earth and limited on- board power, radio signals used for communication are weak with heavy background noise.
- Thirdly, Trans Lunar Injection (TLI) and Lunar capture is a major challenge. As the moon’s location is continually changing due to orbital motion, the intersection of Chandrayaan 2 and the Moon’s path has to be predicted sufficiently in advance with a high level of accuracy.
- Fourthly, while soft landing on the moon, the on-board NGC and propulsion system has to work in union, autonomously, and automatically for a successful landing. Further, the landing site landscape features should not result in a communication shadow area.
- Fifthly, orbiting around the moon is a challenge. This is because, lunar gravity is ‘lumpy’ due to uneven mass distribution under its surface and the influences the orbit of the spacecraft.
- Sixthly, lunar dust is major issue. The lunar dust stick to most surfaces, causing a disruption in deployment mechanisms, solar panel performance, and NGC sensor performances.
- Finally, the extreme temperature and hard vacuum (caused by the ambient pressure) makes the lunar surface extremely hostile environment for lander and rover operations.
