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Chandrayaan-2: Three steps closer to Moon, carrying NASA’s Apollo 11 legacy

India's Chandrayaan-2 is carrying laser reflectors to the Moon which enables to measure the distance between the Earth and the Moon. The spacecraft has completed three orbit-raising manoeuvres and here is the journey ahead for the mission.

chandrayaan 2, chandrayaan 2 journey, laser reflectors, chandrayaan 2 laser reflelctors, moon, lunar surface Chandrayaan-2 has now raised its orbit for the third time and it’s carrying NASA’s lunar reflectors to the Moon. (Image source: Twitter/ISRO)

Taking forward the legacy of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission, India’s Chandrayaan-2 is carrying laser reflectors to the moon, which help in measuring the distance between the Earth and the Moon, reported Space.com. The Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft has now moved into a higher orbit after firing its onboard propulsion system, which makes it the third time it has raised its orbit as part of complex manoeuvers to reach the lunar surface.

Chandrayaan-2 is scheduled to enter lunar orbit on August 20 and ‘soft land’ on the south polar region of the moon on September 7. But before all of that happens, the ISRO spacecraft has to clear several complicated procedures to reach its destination, as our most powerful launcher vehicle GSLV Mk-III does not have enough power to reach the moon in a single shot.

Most of these manoeuvers will be performed in the first 25 days of the launch. During this time, the spacecraft will incrementally raise its orbit around the Earth, which will provide it with strength for the journey ahead.

Chandrayaan-2 carrying laser reflectors to Moon

In 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts left lunar lasers reflector on the moon that contained 100 small prisms. Scientists on Earth would shoot laser beams at these prisms to measure the distance between our planet and the Moon. Now, decades later, Chandrayaan-2 is also carrying laser reflectors on its mission to the moon, reported Space.com.

The laser ranging retroreflector is a special type of mirror that can always reflect an incoming light beam to the same direction that it came from without the need for a power source.

A “microreflector” retroreflector that is currently on its way to the lunar surface. (Image source: NASA/GSFC via Space.com)

As per the report, the special laser retroreflector that NASA supplied to ISRO is positioned on the Chandrayaan’s Vikram Lander and the new micro retroreflector device weighs only 22 grams. It similar to the one deployed on the InSight Mars lander and can be seen from the lunar orbit.

A look at Chandrayaan-2’s journey

*July 22: Chandrayaan-2 was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and set in an earth-bound elliptical orbit 17 minutes after the launch

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*July 24: It performed its first earthbound orbit-raising manoeuvre to reach 230 km x 45,163 km orbit

*July 26: The second orbit raising manoeuvre was performed to set it in a 251 km x 54,829 km orbit

*July 29: It reached the 276 km x 71,792 km orbit after the third orbit raising manoeuvre

*August 2: Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft will raise its orbit to 248 km x 90,229 km

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*August 6: It will raise in the earthbound orbit for the fifth and last time to reach 221 km x 1,43,585 km where it will remain till August 14.

Chandrayaan-2’s journey to the Moon’s south pole. (Image source: ISRO)

Afterwards, Chandrayaan-2 will break away from the Earth’s orbit and start moving towards the Moon. On entering the Moon’s sphere of influence, the onboard propulsion system of Chandrayaan-2 will be fired to slow down the spacecraft.

It will enable the spacecraft to be captured into a preliminary orbit around the Moon. Later, Chandrayaan-2 will perform a set of manoeuvres around the moon to be circularised at 100 km height from the lunar surface.

Subsequently, the lander will separate from the orbiter and enter into a 100 km X 30 km orbit around the Moon, and then, it will perform a series of “complex braking” manoeuvres to soft-land in the South polar region of the Moon on September 7.

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Chandrayaan-2 mission on the Moon

After the successful landing of Chandrayaan-2 on the lunar surface, the rover will roll out from the lander and carry out experiments on the Moon for a period of one lunar day, which is equal to 14 Earth days. ISRO says that the orbiter payloads will conduct remote-sensing observations from a 100 km orbit while the lander and the rover payloads will perform in-situ measurements near the landing site. The orbiter will continue its mission for a duration of one year.

The Chandrayaan-2 mission will try to understand the composition of the Moon by studying the measurements on the near-surface plasma environment and electron density in the lunar ionosphere. The mission will also measure the thermophysical property of the lunar surface and seismic activities. Apart from this, Chandrayaan-2 will also study the water molecule distribution using infrared spectroscopy, synthetic aperture radiometry & polarimetry as well as mass spectroscopy techniques.

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