Chandrayaan-2 – A Lunar Exploration Mission

Chandrayaan-2 is the second ISRO Lunar Exploration mission, which strives to achieve both scientific and technological goals.

Mission Objective

Chandrayaan-2 aimed to map and study the variations in the composition of the lunar surface and the location and abundance of its fluids.

Mission Significance 

Demonstrate the capability to achieve a soft landing and effectively operate a robotic rover on the lunar surface.

Source: Vishwakarma University

Engineering Challenges

As ISRO’s second lunar expedition, Chandrayaan-2 has its special technological challenges:

• Maintaining Orbital Stability and Longevity – The orbiter was designed for a long life. This required engineering stability against the harsh lunar environment, including continuous exposure to space radiation and rapid, intense thermal cycling.
• High-Resolution Lunar Observation – This is exceptionally difficult due to the high intensity of reflected solar energy from the lunar surface. Any stray light leaking into the optical system or internal reflections caused by the instrument housing could completely obscure the faint spectral signals being measured.
• Passive Thermal Management – For instruments to accurately measure thermal and spectral signatures, their internal components must be maintained at extremely precise, cold temperatures.

Mission Components & Characteristics

The Chandrayaan-2 mission stands as a remarkable technological advancement, signifying a substantial leap in ISRO’s capabilities. It unites three components that collaborate to fulfill the main mission of investigating the moon: 

• Orbiter – responsible for communicating with IDSN (Indian Deep Space Network) and the Lander.

• Lander (Vikram) – named after Dr. Vikram A Sarabhai, the founder of the Indian Space Program. It was designed to function for one lunar day (14 Earth days). However, Vikram crashed during this attempt on 6th September 2021.

• Rover (Pragyan) – ‘Pragyan’ is the Sanskrit word for wisdom. The rover was designed to move on six wheels and cross 500m on the lunar surface to conduct raw analyses on-site and deliver the data to Vikram. 

Source: Vishwakarma University

Acktar’s Solution

ISRO incorporated Acktar’s Nano Black specialized coating for the IIRS to enable the high-precision spectral mapping. This ensures that unwanted visible light is eliminated and that the coated components contribute minimal thermal background noise, which is essential for accurate spectral readings of the lunar surface.

Impact

Chandrayyan-2’s Main Study Goals are:

• Examine lunar topography, mineral composition, elemental concentrations, and the lunar exosphere, as well as detect hydroxyl and water ice signatures.
• Investigate the presence of water ice in the southern polar region and measure the depth of the lunar soil surface.
• To chart the lunar landscape and contribute to creating 3D maps of it.

Source: ISRO

Ongoing Mission and the complete Overcome 

The orbiter continued functioning even though the lander crashed. Although Chandrayaan-2 couldn’t complete its mission to the fullest, the ISRO chose to praise the successes of this mission. ISRO overcame the failure by learning its causes carefully to improve for the next round, which happened 4 years later – Chandrayyan-3.

Name Origin 

From Sanskrit: Chandra – moon; Yana – craft vehicle
Full meaning: moon craft 

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