Chandrayaan 2 Components - Chandrayaan series

Today, India has launched it's Chandrayaan 2 mission successfully. It was the first mission in the world to explore the south polar lunar region. Let's take a view on this mission.

MOON EXPLORATION HISTORY:

 The human exploration to moon began on 1959 by Soviet Union by the launching of Luna 2 mission . And then in 1966, they successfully launched Luna 9. In the year 1969, USA launched first manned mission to moon, Apollo 11 where Neil Armstrong, Edwin buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins successfully landed on moon and set their footprints and their flag. It was considered as a major milestone of human era. Between 1969 to 1972, 24 men traveled to moon. On October 22, 2008, India launched it's first moon mission, Chandrayaan 1 at Sathish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. In this mission, Chandrayaan successfully found the presence of water molecules on the moon. Now, India launches it's 2.0 version of Chandrayaan 1.

CHANDRAYAAN 2 - A OVERVIEW:

Chandrayaan 2 is a orbiter - lander - rover mission unlike chandrayaan 1 which is a orbiter mission. 

COMPONENTS:

These lander, orbiter and rover are carried into the space by the mightiest rocket ever built by India - Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) - Mark 3, the most powerful Indian rocket till now. This rocket consists of 

• 2 Solid boosters
• A core liquid booster
• Cryogenic stage.

SOLID BOOSTERS:

Chandrayaan launcher uses two S200 rocket boosters to lift off from the land. It is placed on both sides of the rocket. This S200 solid boosters was developed at Vikram Sarabhai Centre at Sriharikota. 

LIQUID BOOSTER:

The liquid boosters are powered by two vikas engines. It was developed by liquid propulsion system centre, which can carry about 110 tonnes of fuel (Dimethyl hydrazine).

CRYOGENIC STAGE:

Fuel - Mixture of oxygen and hydrogen 

Duration - 640 seconds

Chandrayan's C25 engine was designed and developed by ISRO's liquid propulsion system centre.

PAY LOAD FIRING:

It is a nose shaped cone present at the top of the spacecraft which is used to protect the spacecraft against atmospheric pressure and heating.

ORBITER

Weight; 2379 kg

Lifespan; 1 year

LANDER (VIKRAM):

Weight; 1471 kg

It is capable of generating 650 W of electricity. The Lander detaches from the Orbiter and lands safely on the lunar surface while the Orbiter scans over the lunar surface. After the Lander landing on the lunar surface, it will deploy rover on the moon.

ROVER (PRAGYAN):

• Six wheeled robotic vehicle
• Lifespan - 1 lunar day (14 earth days)

The Rover takes the soil sample and scans the lunar surface, studying it's topography, polar volatile deposits, mineralogy and elemental abundance in the moon.

Rover Pragyan carries two main components in it viz., 

1. LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope)
2. APIXS (Alpha Particle Induced X-ray Spectroscope)
   
   

                                                                                                                                  (To be continued...)