CHANDRAYAAN 2 LEAVING EARTH'S GRAVITY

ISRO has just announced the completion of all EARTH bound operation by the CHANDRAYAAN-2 spacecraft. It is currently in orbit around the EARTH. It has performed 5 orbit raising operations and is now preparing to step aboard on its journey to moon.Meanwhile, the Mission team has released the very first set of images by CHANDRAYAAN-2. These are the images taken off the earth when the spacecraft was in orbit on AUGUST 3. These images were taken by a camera that is on VIKRAM lander. The lander is currently sitting on top of the orbiter and this entire composite body will move towards the moon. There is also a rover called PRAGYAN which is currently housed inside the lander. The lander is expected to touch down the Moon surface on September 7th of 2019.

                         
                                  First image of earth captured by CHANDRAYAAN- 2

Birth of Moon

                             

The Earth over its 4.5 billion year history has been pummeled by asteroids eroded by wind and rain, covered over with flowing lava, wrinkled and gaouged by shifts in its crust. Most traces of its distant past have long since been destroyed. But there is a place where clues to the early history of our planet are still largely intact. Scientists have been reconstructing its history by scouring its surface, mapping its mountains and craters and probing its interior regions. The Moon orbits earth at an average distance of 384,400 kilometers. Its relatively small, with less than 1 percent the surface area, 2 percent the volume and 1 percent the mass of Earth. With no atmosphere their temperature ranges from -233 degree celsius at night to 123 degree celsius during the day.

                                     

As the brightest object in night sky, the Moon has guided people for Millennia by defining the rhythms of life and animating our myths. The nature of the Moon began to come into focus 4 Centuries ago. To some philosophers, the moon was a perfect, crystalline sphere of divine substance, free of Earth imperfections.

Galileo Galelei noted mountains and valleys on the moon, features like those of Earth. The so called Fission theory made by George Howard Darwin son of Charles Darwin, held that the Moon was once part of earth, cast off by rapid spin of its young parent.

William Hartmann Theory

Theory of Moon's Formation

William Hartmann theory of Moon's Formation is played out in contemporary scenario. Sharing an orbit with Earth was a Mars-sized body called Theia, named for a Titan in Greek myth who gave birth to the Moon Goddess, SELENE. Its orbit became unstable and it headed in Earth's Direction. Theia hit at an oblique angle, causing the Earth to spin faster and debris from both Theia and Earth to fly into orbit. When the dust settled, the debris began to coalesced in Earth orbit, forming the MOON. By then, volatile compounds like water had evaporated. That's why overall the Moon is lighter or less dense than the Earth. 

                                         

William Hartmann died in 1998

Chandrayaan-2 Mission

WHAT IT WILL DISCOVER

Chandrayaan-2 is India's most challenging mission so far, a highly complex undertaking. The spacecraft should reach its destination when it enters an elliptical orbit of the Moon then it will approach the lunar surface. When the landing robot VIKRAM separates from the craft, the most exciting phase begins-India's First soft landing on the Moon. The selected landing site is about 600 kilometers from the lunar south pole- a region of craters on the dark side of the Moon. It has frozen ice in craters that is spotted by satellites given the High Plateau, the landing robot should touch down gently amid ancient rocks.

                                     

It can travel upto 500 meters with its onboard instruments. The rover will measure water bearing minerals in the lunar rock as well as the concentration of elements such as aluminium, silicon and titanium. Meanwhile the landing robot will record Moon Quakes and explore so called Lunar Plasma- a thin layer of electrically charged particles above the surface. Vikram and the rover will be able to collect data for a earth days, then it will go dark for 14 days that's when the temperature drops to 160 degrees below 0 degree celsius.

                              

Vikram, Rover and Orbiter Shown in Figure 

The Orbiter will spend a year gathering data about the Moon. The objective is to fill in the gaps from India's previous Mission. It has eight measuring instruments on board. Their function is to investigate the Moon's thin atmosphere and show which minerals and chemical elements make up its surface. 

For the first time, a special radar will be used to determine the location and quantity of frozen water. India's mission is the first to bring this type of instrument to the Moon. 

AFTER THE LAUNCH

ISRO SPEECH

We are extremely happy to announce that GSLV MK-III  successfully injected Chandrayaan-2 in the defined orbit. It is the beginning of historical journey of INDIA towards Moon and to land at a place near south pole to carry out scientific experiments to explore them. Infact after that a serious technical snag he had and we fixed that technical snag now ISRO bounce back with flying colours.

                                

Chandrayaan 2 is now expected to touch down near the lunar South Pole in September. It's going to become the first ever spacecraft to land in that region. The Lander and Rover will be the two parts that will actually be touching down taking part of that soft landing. The launch of the Chandrayaa-2 come this in at the fiftieth anniversary of the historic APOLLO 11 when NEIL ARMSTRONG first landed on MOON. Now world Media's are praising India's achievement as it made the low cost homegrown technology. CNN highlighted India's significance as a major space contender and the US space agency NASA said that it was looking forward to learn much from ISRO about the unexplored lunar south pole.

                                     

APOLLO 11 REVIEW

More About Chandrayaan 2

Chandrayaan 2 was launched on India's most powerful rocket, the Geosynchronous satellite Launch Vehicle GSLV MK- III , a rocket capable of putting 4 tonnes of satellite up into earth's geosynchronous orbit. The vehicle successfully launched on July 22 after a couple of delays and according to reports of ISRO, the spacecraft is on its way to Moon. The first attempt of India to land on Moon's surface i.e. Chandrayaan 1  was not successful as it orbited the Moon but not landed on it. 

                                       

     HEAVIEST ROCKET GSLV MK-III