on 07 Sep 2019, India sent an unmanned mission to the Moon. The mission was called Chandrayaan -2 which means Moon Vehicle 2 in Sanskrit/ Hindi. The mission comprised three vehicles, the Lunar Orbiter, the Lander namd Vikram and the Rover named Pragyan. The orbiter was supposed to orbit the Moon as a satellite and collect data. This vehicle is performing fine and is presently collecting the data as per its mission description.

The Lander was supposed to detach from the Orbiter and land on the South Pole of the Moon. A side which has not been explored much till date. For this close exploration, the Lander carried a Rover which was a small moon buggy with requisite sensors installed. However, during its descent onto the surface of the Moon, it us believed that the deceleration system of the lander did not perform as designed and that led to the Lander crashing onto the surface of the Moon.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) which is responsible for all outer space exploration missions, undertook a detailed analysis of the mission and the reasons for the sub optimal performance of the Lander. The analysis was done by a committee under the chairmanship of S Somanath, the Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) which is responsible for all launch vehicle programmes of ISRO. The internal probe into the accident has been completed with ISRO pin pointing the reason for the failure of the Lander.

ISRO has found a good launch window in November 2020 and is preparing to again attempt a Moon landing in November 2020 using the Chandrayaan 3.

Advertisement