The Lunar Journey

·        India’s second mission on to the Moon is Chandrayaan-2 which means Moon Vehicle (from Sanskrit, an ancient Indian Language)

·        It was launched on July 22, 2019

·        This mission has two major parts:

                                i.           The Orbiter: a 2,379 kg satellite. It is designed for a life of one year. ISRO expects it to function for seven years.

-         It studies the lunar surface from a distance of 100 kms.

                              ii.           Lander – rover system: Lander weighs 1,471 kg while rover weighs 27 kg. It was to be positioned on the moon’s surface and was to operate for one lunar day (14 earth days from sunrise to sunset on the moon).

·        On 2^nd September, the lander with the rover inside it was separated from the orbiter for its journey towards the surface of Moon.

·        A soft landing was attempted on September 7^th but communication was lost at the height of 2.1 km above the Moon’s surface.

Landing:

·        System For any planetary exploration, landing on the surface of a planet is the most challenging part for the mission. The chairman of ISRO, Mr. Sivan had actually pronounced on various occasions that the last part of the mission which involves the controlled (powered) landing is going to be terrorizing! This involved the travel of lander for last 35 kilometers. This travel was to take 15 minutes, and became known as the “15 minutes of terror.”

·        Everything was supposed to happen in autonomous mode during this 15-minute period. A deviation in the trajectory, 12 minutes into the descent, was visible. The system failed during the autonomous mode. Possibly, the velocity was higher than required at that height.

·        The strength of autonomy of any system would depend on the basic design factors. The design would be mainly based on what the scientists and technologists anticipate as possible inconsistencies and feed them in the system. Normally, autonomous systems operate in complex and open-ended environments with high levels of independence. They are expected to learn and reason with themselves. In addition, they are designed in such a way that they would identify the unforeseen changes in time and respond accordingly.

·        The rover was supposed to be a totally AI(Artificial Intelligence) -based product. However, since it did not have an opportunity to operate, no judgment could be made in that regard. It could be very difficult to quantify the role, if any, played by AI during last few minutes of the mission. AI works on data inputs and for such unique missions it is unlikely that required data would have been available in abundance.

If this mission was to success India would become the 4^th country to land on the Moon after US, Russia and China. It would also become the 1^st country to land close to Lunar south pole on its 1^st attempt.

Aim of Chandrayaan 2 is :

i.                    To improve our understanding of the moon discoveries that will benefit us.

ii.                  Stimulate the advancement of technology.

iii.                 Promote global alliances.

iv.                Inspire the future scientists and inventors.

Launching:

·        Chandrayaan 2 was launched by Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-III (GSLV Mk-III) M1 Launch Vehicle on July 22, 2019 from Sriharikota (ISRO).

·        The lander of Chandrayaan 2 is named Vikram after Dr. Vikram A Sarabhai, the father of Indian Space Programme.

·        It is designed to function for one lunar day (14 earth days).

·        It’s rover is a 6-wheeled robotic vehicle named pragyan (meaning-wisdom). It can travel upto 500 m and leverages solar energy for its functioning.