On July 22, 2019 with lot of dreams and determination India launched its Chandrayaan 2. The launch took place from second launch pad of SHAR, Sriharikota. During landing on the Moon something went wrong, dream of Indians became a hope and the reports tell that ISRO has lost the communication with the Vikram lander.
Whether Chandrayaan 2 is a failed mission or not? What has happened during landing? Let us see what happened?
Parts of Chandrayaan 2
There are three main parts in Chandrayaan 2 which are used for experiments and research.
- Orbiter
- Vikram lander
- Pragyan Rover
Orbiter
The orbiter is used for revolving around the moon, take photos and send to the Earth. After the launch the orbiter send some photos of the Earth from space which look pretty good.
Vikram lander
The name of rover, Vikram is named after the late scientist Vikram Sarabhai. Lander is used to make a soft landing on the moon. This will have 5 thrusts to position and balance the lander.
Pragyan Rover
'Pragyan' is the word in Sanskrit meaning wisdom. Pragyan rover will come out from the lander after the soft landing. This rover lifetime is 1 lunar day that is 14 days in Earth.
Rover will work only 14 days because during night, in moon temperature will decrease to 170 degrees Celsius.
Cost
The cost of Chandrayaan 2 mission is Rs. 978 Core. This is far more less than the cost of making Avengers End Game. This is less than 10% of cost of NASA's Apollo mission.
So ISRO has made it with less cost and more efforts.
Journey to the Moon by Chandrayaan 2
After take off from SHAR, it gone through maneuvers by orbiting around the Earth. It used even gravity of Earth to get the force to go to Moon.
Once it make to the moon's orbit, it started orbiting around the moon in lunar orbit. To make the landing of the Vikram lander soft and good, the orbiter with the lander lowers down to the lunar orbit to 100 km height from the moon.
After that the lander leaves the orbiter and starts it's landing mission.
During landing, everything went right for sometime. But when it reaches about 2.1 km from the moon, the control room of ISRO freezed. They report that we lost communication with the lander.
What went wrong
According to certain reports from former ISRO scientists and the Chairperson K. Sivan, there are three possible happenings.
- Thrust defect
- Sensor defect
- Braking effect
Thrust Defect
As I mentioned before, there are five thrusts in the Vikram lander. These thrusts are used to balance the lander and to position the lander in correct location.
First the lander has only four thrusts. Then ISRO scientists done some experiments with it. They found some problem with it. Then they added another thrust in the bottom middle portion of lander.
Since the moon don't have atmosphere, we can't make the lander land using parachute. So we need to use thrusts to make the landing soft and safe.
When the lander leaves the orbiter it uses it's thrusts to slow down towards the moon. When it reach near moon it needs to use only one thrust which is present in the bottom middle portion. This is because if all thrusts are used near the moon, then the dust particles on the moon will blow up and it may damage the instruments inside the lander.
Since the error happened in last 2.1 km, it is expected that there may be any defect with the thrust in the middle part.
Sensor Defect
Sensors are present in the lander to decide the place of landing. Scientists had provided two landing areas to the lander, which is programmed in it.
There may be any defect with the sensor, so the lander has gone away from the communication region.
Braking effect
While we are driving any vehicle, we would have experienced the effect of braking. If a sudden brake is applied then the vehicle may gone from our control.
Recent reports are reflecting this. The officials are telling that because of the applied brake to make the landing safe, the lander might have gone away from our control and communication.
Hope for connection
ISRO chairperson told that they will try to get the connection of the lander and the rover for the next 14 days. If the orbiter comes near the lander then the link will be established. This can make the rover to continue it's mission.
Is this mission a failure?
No, absolutely this mission is not a failure. 95% of the experiments are going to be conducted by the orbiter. Only 5% experiments is expected to be done by the rover.
ISRO chairperson told that this setback will not affect the Gaganyaan mission. In this mission ISRO will send three Indian astronauts to the moon.
No country in the world has tried to go near the south pole of the moon. But India has done it. Proud to be an Indian.
I have given my best in this post. If something is missing in this post let me know in the comments section I will cover it in upcoming posts. Thanks for reading. Have a nice day.
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