The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today successfully completed a crucial orbit manoeuvre and put the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft into the lunar orbit. With this the spacecraft is now just a few days away from landing on the moon's surface.
According to the space agency, the Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) was completed successfully at 9.02 a.m. as planned using the onboard propulsion system. All the systems of Chandrayaan-2 are healthy. "The duration of manoeuvre was 1,738 seconds. With this, Chandrayaan-2 was successfully inserted into a lunar orbit. The orbit achieved is 114km X 18,072km," the ISRO said.
Following this, a series of orbit manoeuvres will be performed on Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft to enable it to enter its final orbit passing over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the Moon's surface.
Subsequently, the lander -- Vikram -- will separate from the Orbiter and enter into a 100km X 30 km orbit around the Moon.
"Then, it will perform a series of complex braking manoeuvres to soft land in the South Polar region of the Moon on September 7, 2019," ISRO said.The health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennas at Bylalu, near the Karnataka capital.
The next Lunar bound orbit manoeuvre is scheduled on Wednesday between 12.30-1.30 p.m.
On July 22, the Chandrayaan-2 was injected into an elliptical orbit of 170X45,475 km by India's heavy lift rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III (GSLV Mk III) in a text book style.
The spacecraft comprises three segments - the Orbiter (weighing 2,379 kg, eight payloads), the lander 'Vikram' (1,471 kg, four payloads) and rover 'Pragyan' (27 kg, two payloads).
According to ISRO, Chandrayaan 2 -- India's second lunar expedition -- will shed light on a completely unexplored section of the Moon its South Polar region.
"This mission will help us gain a better understanding of the origin and evolution of the Moon by conducting detailed topographical studies, comprehensive mineralogical analyses, and a host of other experiments on the lunar surface", the space agency had said.
"While there, we will also explore discoveries made by Chandrayaan 1, such as the presence of water molecules on the Moon and new rock types with unique chemical composition", it was stated.
The mission life of Orbiter will be one year whereas the mission life of Orbiter will be one year whereas the mission life of lander (Vikram) and rover (Pragyan) will be one Lunar day which is equal to fourteen earth days.
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