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India’s second Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission ended a year in orbit around the moon on Thursday and all instruments are currently functioning well and there is enough fuel on board to keep it operational for about seven years, the space agency said. ISRO.
Chandrayaan-2 was launched on July 22, 2019 and inserted into lunar orbit on August 20, exactly one year ago.
“Although the soft landing attempt (of the lander carrying the rover) was unsuccessful, the orbiter, which was equipped with eight scientific instruments, was successfully placed in lunar orbit. The orbiter has performed more than 4,400 orbits around the moon and all instruments are currently functioning well, ”said the Indian Space Research Organization.
In a statement, the agency said the spacecraft was in good health and the performance of the subsystems was normal.
“The orbiter is maintained in a polar orbit of 100 +/- 25 km with periodic orbit maintenance (OM) maneuvers. So far, 17 OMs have been achieved since the completion of the 100 km lunar orbit on September 24, 2019. There is enough fuel on board to remain operational for about seven years, ”he added.
The Chandrayaan-2 mission was India’s first attempt to soft-land a rover on the unknown south pole of the lunar surface.
However, the Vikram lander landed in September of last year.
Scientific payloads, including the high-resolution camera, on board the oriber to map the lunar surface and study the exosphere (outer atmosphere) of the moon.
ISRO, headquartered in the city, said the raw payload data had been uploaded to the Indian Space Science Data Center (ISSDC) during the year.
The public data release was expected by the end of this year, after validation by a formal peer review, he said, adding that the first-year observations of Chandrayaan-2 demonstrate the in-orbit performance of the payloads, strongly indicating its ability to contribute significantly to lunar science. .
“The long expected life of this orbiter can contribute a lot to the current resurgence of interest in the global scientific community for a sustained presence on the Moon,” the space agency said.
Chandrayaan-2 was launched to further expand knowledge about the moon through a detailed study of its topography, mineralogy, surface chemical composition, thermophysical characteristics and atmosphere, leading to a better understanding of the origin and evolution of the moon.
India’s first mission to the Moon Chandrayaan-1, launched in 2008, had given clear evidence of the extensive presence of surface water and indication of ice deposits of polar underground water.
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