NEW DELHI: The country’s second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2, which Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) announced on Wednesday that it will be launched on July 15, will not only unravel the deep mysteries of the Moon but will also take Isro ’s relations with US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( Nasa ) to new heights.

Of the 14 payloads which Chandrayaan-2 will be carrying to the Moon, 13 are indigenous payloads and one “passive payload” of Nasa.

Talking to TOI, Isro chairman K Sivan said, “Nasa’s passive payload Laser Retroreflector (LRA), integrated with Vikram lander, will be “carried for free” and help calculate the distance between the earth and the Moon. It will also find the exact location of the lander on the Moon. This Nasa payload will work for long (even after the moonlanding) and Nasa will share the data generated from this payload with us.”

He said, “As this mission is an interplanetary mission, data from our Deep Space Network in Byalalu (Karnataka) won’t be sufficient. We will therefore use Nasa’s network of deep space centres for guidance and tracking of our Chandrayaan-2 module during its journey to the moon. Nasa will make use of their network and not just one place (space hub) for navigation and tracking.”

Nasa’s Deep Space Network (DSN) is a worldwide network of US spacecraft communication facilities, located in US’s California, Spain’s Madrid and Australia’s Canberra, that supports US interplanetary spacecraft missions. It also performs radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe.

Nasa had also joined hands with Isro during India’s first moon mission. Chandrayaan-1, which was launched in 2008, also carried a Nasa payload, Moon Minerology Mapper (M3). M3, an imaging spectrometer, helped confirm the discovery of water locked in minerals on the Moon. Nasa had then credited India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission for the biggest discovery on the Moon. The find also raised the possibility of setting up human habitat on the earth’s only natural satellite .

Interestingly, Nasa scientists, in a recent discovery this year, have confirmed that water is being released on the lunar surface during meteor showers. In a four-minute video published by Nasa Goddard alludes to India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunarcraft, which helped the US space agency confirm the presence of frozen water deposits on the lunar surface.

India’s second odyssey to Moon

On July 15, the integrated module involving an orbiter, lander and a rover will be launched by an advanced version of the GSLV MK III rocket from the Sriharikota launch centre. Once released by the rocket in the geo-transfer orbit, the integrated Chandrayaan-2 module will move in an elliptical orbit around the Earth for 16 days when five orbit-raising manoeuvres will be conducted. It will then spend five days to finally reach the Moon’s orbit in around 20-21 days (August 5 or 6) after covering a distance of 3.84 lakh km from the Earth. Thereafter, the integrated module will remain in the lunar orbit for 27 days before the lander named Vikram gets separated.

Vikram, which will house rover Pragyan, will sit on top of the orbiter. Once the lander is 30km from the Moon, it will descend for the touchdown. “The 15-minute operation in which Vikram makes the final descent and soft-lands will be the most complex mission,” the Isro chief said. After a successful landing, Pragyan will come of the lander and move at a speed of 1cm per second on the lunar surface to cover a distance of 500 metre in 14 earth days. During the 14 earth days, it will carry out different scientific experiments with its two payloads. “The rover will take images of the Moon and analyse the content on the lunar surface and send data and images back to the earth through the orbiter within 15 minutes,” Sivan told TOI.



In Video: Chandrayaan-2: ISRO unveils launch vehicle of lunar mission