Chandrayaan-2 successfully enters Moon's orbit
It was a "agnipariksha" of sorts for the moon-bound Chandrayaan-2 on Tuesday when the spacecraft underwent a crucial orbit manoeuvre. After a nearly 30-day journey, India's second mission to the moon was inserted into the lunar orbit this morning.
Chandrayaan-2 mission comes 11 years after India's first mission to the moon. The ambitious moon mission aims at setting a major milestone in India's space missions by attempting a soft landing on the lunar surface. The feat has so far been achieved only by three countries - US, Russia and China. This mission would shed light on South Pole, a completely unexplored region of the moon.
Chandrayaan-2 is on its way to the moon and is all set to land near the south pole of the moon on September 7. But before that, it faced a make-or-break situation today.
Today's maneouvre was of the most tricky operations of India's ambitious moon mission because in case the satellite approached the moon at a high-than-expected velocity, it would have bounced off it and got lost in deep space.
Even a small error could have destroyed the mission. The approach velocity had to be right, the altitude over the moon precise for things to fall in place.
Following this, there will be further four orbit manoeuvres to make the spacecraft enter its final orbit passing over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from moon's surface. The Vikram lander subsequently will separate from the orbiter on September 2.
Two orbit manoeuvres will be performed on the lander before the initiating of powered descent to make a soft landing on the lunar surface on September 7.
Chandrayaan 2 had entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory on August 14 after final orbit raising manoeuvre of the spacecraft as successfully carried out.
It was on July 22 when Chandrayaan-2 lifted off onboard ISRO's most powerful launcher, GSLV-Mk III. The mission carries 13 Indian scientific instruments for experiments. Mission will study the exosphere of the moon.
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