The decks are cleared for India's ambitious Chandrayaan-2 mission. Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Sivan on made an announcement about the country's second mission to the moon recently.
Mission to moon is rocket science (quite literally). Scientists at ISRO keep bad jokes aside and devote their time and talent to develop some of the most sophisticated machines in the country. Chandrayaan-2 will be no exception.
The path from Earth to the Moon is not linear. A rocket does not just take off and suddenly lands on the Moon. It requires careful maneuvering in multiple stages.
Here's how Chandrayaan-2 will blast off from earth and land on the moon
Stage-1: Geo-Synchronous Launch Vehicle or GSLV Mk 3 will blast-off from Shriharikota on July 15. GSLV Mk 3 will carry Chandrayaan-2 lunarcraft which in turn, will carry an orbiter, lander and a rover.
Stage 2: The GSLV will put Chandrayaan-2 lunarcraft in an elliptical orbit around the earth. Now the lunarcraft will be guided to an orbit around Moon with the help of fire thrusters.
Stage 3: Placing the lunarcraft into Moon's orbit is not an easy task. The craft will have to travel for about 20 days and cover a distance of 3,84,000 kms before reaching lunar orbit.
Stage 4: In this stage, the lander will detach from the orbiter and go ahead on its path to land on the Moon.
Stage 5: The lander will land on the Moon! The landing is expected to take place on September 6, 2019.
Stage 6: The orbiter, from which the lander detached in the fourth stage will continue to orbit around the moon all the while lander makes attempt to land. As the lander lands, the orbiter (still orbitting around the Moon) will start its function to prepare a 3D map of the Moon.
Chandrayaan-2 is an advanced version of the previous Chandrayaan-1 mission, which was launched about 10 years ago. Chandrayaan-1 mission has the credit of finding water on the moon.
Chadrayaan-2 will be the ambitious next step in India's space program.
Highlights and interesting facts about Chandrayaan-2 mission
- GSLV Mk-3 is dubbed as Bahubali since it has a lifting capacity of 4 tonnes
- Chadrayaan-2 will have 13 Indian payloads and a payload from NASA.
- Once detached from the GSLV mk 3, the lunarcraft will spend 16 days orbitting around the earth in an elliptical orbit.
- Chandrayaan-2 module will spend 27 days around the moon before the lander detaches and proceeds to land on the moon.
- One of the objectives of the Chandrayaan-2 mission is to explore the possibility of setting up human colonies on the moon.
Watch | First pictures of ISRO's Chandrayaan 2 released
