It has been 10 years since the launch of Chandrayaan – 1 and three months since we launched the second installation Chandrayaan – 2. The whole country came together at the time of the launch and prayed for a smooth landing of the spacecraft. The Chandrayaan-1 was launched on October 22, 2008, onboard a PSLV rocket, with tremendous hopes attached to it. In contrast to this, Chandrayaan-2 was launched with a much more powerful GLSV Mk-III rocket on July 22, 2019.
The scientists aimed for a soft landing of Chandrayaan – 2 on the moon’s south polar region. As reported, the robotic lander Vikram lost contact with Earth minutes before it was to land on the Moon. The people of the country along with the scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation were all cheering as the lander aced the multiple stages of its lunar descent.
As the control room fell silent with no confirmation of the events happening on the surface of the moon, people were worried and heartbroken to see such results. As the ISRO chief K Sivan confirmed about the lost contact, what was next was the crucial time to analyse each movement happening at the surface of the moon. The research team were collecting and analysing what possibly could have gone wrong when it was just 2.1 km from soft landing.
The telemetric data from the Chandrayaan-2 was being examined keeping in mind the final emissions and signals sent by the lander. It became tough to keep track of such minor issues happening at such huge distance i.e. between the earth and moon. The efforts of reconnecting with the lander are high while chances of achieving it are not that high. Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is being used to map the landing site of the lander to know more details about Chandrayaan – 2.
The orbiter was the only way of connecting to Chandrayaan – 2. Every day is a new mission for our scientists as each small finding adds to the puzzle helping solve the mystery of beyond human existence. The more we experiment the more we learn about the truth behind the twinkling sky.
More power to the Indian Space Research Organisation and cheering for many more success stories!
