Chandrayaan 2 – ISRO’s second moon mission

In this year and the last, ISRO has had many successful missions making its name reach new heights. Even in general, ISRO has been increasingly making new strides in the recent past especially.

However, it looks like their future is going to be even better especially in 2018. India has announced another big mission. It is the Chandrayaan-2 which will mark India’s second lunar exploration mission. This means that in the first quarter of 2018, ISRO will be making strides on the Moon.

The mission will be following its predecessor of Chandrayaan-1 launched in 2008 and going far beyond it to explore the moon.

AS Kiran Kumar, the chairperson of ISRO said that the organization is now working on a suitable engine for the mission to make a controlled landing.

The mission will use a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle called GSLV-Mk II to reach the moon.

ISRO is also planning every single facet of the mission and its objectives now. They are planning the Lunar Lander, the Lunar Rover which will navigate on the satellite’s surface and a lunar orbiter.

The rover by ISRO is about 20kg in weight and works completely on solar power. It has six wheels to navigate the surface of the mission.

It is made to collect rock and soil samples to be analyzed by the rover itself.

The data from the analysis would then be sent back to the earth via satellites.

The objective of the mission is to make findings which would help all scientists know more information regarding the moon. It is expected that this mission will also provide more proof there is water ice on the moon.

The mission will also be useful in mapping certain areas of the lunar surface and study the atmosphere.

Such a mission is fitting to ISRO which is on a streak of success after launching 104 satellites in one go. They are also planning a mission to study the atmosphere of Venus.

Image by Michael Kleinsasser from Pixabay (Free for commercial use)

Image Reference: https://pixabay.com/photos/full-moon-moon-mountain-night-4009783/