One of the most anticipated events of this year, Chandrayaan 2 has some shocking news to everyone. After being successfully launched from GSLV Mk III in July this year, it was set to land on moon today at 1.40AM.
What actually happened was fine and we’re not done yet.
After slightly changing the path from the trajectory, Vikram the lander was still in proper control. The Orbiter, as per plan, is revolving around the moon from a distance. At 1.30AM, the rough descending happened as planned, but the later moment caught everyone.
Soft landing! Vikram is supposed to be landing at a spot which it has decided previously. But, a minutes-distance from the lunar surface, it just lost contact with ISRO!
Losing Communication and Further Drama.
Around 2 AM, Vikram the lander has completed the rough braking phase and was about starting for fine braking. But things got abnormal when K.Sivan, ISRO’s chief, announced Vikram’s status. At an altitude of 2.1km, Vikram has lost communication with ISRO! The data that has to be received from Vikram to the Monitoring station has cut, which led everyone to panic.
Modi’s Soothing Mantra!
While everyone’s discussing what was happening and how to retrieve communications, the Prime Minister, initially got startled, yet kept his cool and started encouraging the ISRO team for their achievement till now. He even tweeted supporting the team and told everyone to be courageous and hope of the best. He even talked to the ISRO’s quiz winning youngsters in the meanwhile!
Why has this happened? Is that okay?
As K.Sivan previously acknowledged, the landing part of Vikram was the most crucial part. He said it’s a “15minutes of terror” due to the hard constraints faced by Vikram (or any other lander) on such terrain which is little known to them.
When Vikram’s set to land at the desired spot, it has to control its full flying velocity to minimal and descent down to surface. At meters of distance just before landing, its concerned geographic machines should test the surface and decide for its comfortable landing, all in a span of 15minutes!
Well, another big thing, Orbiter is still alive and is revolving as usual. With the validity of the next one year, it studies the moon from distance as a flyer around it. Meanwhile, it can even send pictures of Vikram and let us know the status too. Just a couple of weeks is all we need.
Moreover, the budget allocated to this mission was a mere Rs.978crore (141million), when compared to the US’s budget of billions of dollars for the same mission. This makes Chandrayaan 2 isn’t a failure yet.