Yet again, a daring endeavor by Indian Space Research Organization or ISRO, a lunar mission to the south pole of the moon. If achieved successfully India will become the fourth country to land on the moon and first to land on the south pole of the moon,.
What are the benefits of going to the moon? What's special in the south pole?
Much of what we know about ou solar system is shrouded in mystery, scientists believe that going to the moon could give us a better idea about the formation of our solar system and help us carrying voyages to further planets. Soft landing on moons surface is tricky so to pull it off, ISRO's most powerful launcher -- GSLV MK-III or "Bahubali" will be used to carry Chandryaan-2 to its designated orbit. The three-stage vehicle is capable of launching 4-tonne class of satellites to the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
When asked about this mission ISRO's scientist said this about the mission "We aim to improve our understanding of the Moon, which could lead to discoveries that will benefit India and humanity as a whole. These insights and experiences will cause a paradigm shift in how lunar expeditions are approached for years to come, propelling further voyages into the farthest frontiers".
Some part of south pole never receives any kind of light so water is present there in the form of ice which was discovered by ISRO's Chandrayaan-I mission way back in 2008. Craters covered with ice never reaches temperatures above -250-degrees Celcius. These craters contain several hundred million tons of water ice, the presence of these craters will ease the process of creating a lunar base as we don't need to carry water for the astronauts which reduce the weight and in turn the cost. Taking even a kilo of payload to space costs a huge amount so using the craters as the source of water will definitely reduce the cost. Moon has three different kinds of water present, one is from the endogenous processes, which are primordial in nature, second is from external sources, like an asteroid and cometary impacts and last is in-situ production of water or hydroxyl compounds.
Working of Chandrayaan-II
Unlike the predecessor Chandrayaan-I, which had just an orbiter. Chandrayaan-II has an orbiter, and rover, configuration. It has a suite of instruments on all of these three platforms.
So this is a big mission consisting of an orbiter, a lander module called Vikram, named after the father of the Indian Space Program, and a six-wheeled rover named Pragyan, meaning “wisdom” in Sanskrit. All these parts will carry a series of payloads unique to their platform to study the lunar topography, seismography, mineral identification and distribution, surface chemical composition, and temperatures of the moon.
Chandrayaan-2 has a two-frequency radar instrument, which is a totally new design. It operates at L and S bands that are, 23 centimeters and 12 centimeters respectively. If we combine these two measurements taken at these different wavelengths, we can have a depth profile of the moon's surface. Our main aim here is to differentiate between rough terrains along with the terrains containing water ice. While the orbiter map water ice beneath the surface from the skies, the Pragyan rover uses lasers to search for concentrations of elements that could have been part of a magma ocean from 4 billion years ago. One payload works on Alpha particle X-ray emission and fluorescent spectroscopy, it blasts alpha particles through a surface and then measures X-ray fluorescence and X-ray emission spectrum. The other payload uses LIBS, it is laser-induced spectroscopy, lasers are used to shoot the surface and then characterize the plasma. To get the information back to earth, Vikram will be in continuous communication with Pragyan and anything the rover finds will be reported back to the earth via the Indian Deep Space Network. The orbiter will operate independently with the IDSN so the team can contact it no matter where it is in its orbit.
To sum up the things, it is a complicated and highly impressive endeavor from the ISRO team. Scientific findings of this mission will have vital future implications for space exploration. KUDOS to Indian scientist, they often don't get their due respect and coverage from the society, this mission hopes to bring both.
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