Lunar lander faces crucial test

Lunar lander faces crucial test

News:

1. The Chandrayaan-2 lunar lander’s sensors will undergo a crucial test in the next few days as the mission races towards a planned take-off in around two months.

Important Facts:

2. ISRO will fly the sensors on an aircraft over its artificial lunar site at Challakere to see how they will function and guide the Chandrayaan-2 landing craft when it starts descending on the lunar terrain.
3. For the test, a prototype module carrying the sensors will be flown on one of ISRO’s two small aircraft.
4. As the plane descends from around 7 km to about 1 km over the artificial terrain, the sensors must show how they will guide the soft landing of the lunar craft at the right spot, speed and position.
5. Until the mission is launched, all systems will be tested continuously after every integration.
6. Background:

• ISRO had started two years back readying a part of the Challakere site to resemble lunar craters and had conducted a few preliminary sensor tests.
• Features of the lander have since been modified and the upcoming tests will also validate the new design.
• The orbiter carrying the lander and a rover is scheduled to be sent to the Moon from Sriharikota on January 31 and expected to reach there sometime in February 2019.

7. About Chandrayaan-2 mission:

• Chandrayaan-2 is India’s second mission to the Moon and a totally indigenous mission comprising of an Orbiter, Lander and Rover.
• The highly autonomous or pre-programmed mission uses a large number of sensors.
• Among them are those that help the lander to precisely assess its height from the landing spot, decide its speed and help it to steer clear of any boulders or uneven surface.
• After reaching the 100 km lunar orbit, the Lander housing the Rover will separate from the Orbiter.
• After a controlled descent, the Lander will soft land on the lunar surface at a specified site and deploy a Rover.
• The instruments on the rover will observe the lunar surface and send back data, which will be useful for analysis of the lunar soil.
• The Chandrayaan-2 weighing around 3290 kg and would orbit around the moon and perform the objectives of remote sensing the moon.
• The payloads will collect scientific information on lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, lunar exosphere and signatures of hydroxyl and water-ice.