The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that the first earth-bound orbit raising manoeuver for Chandryaan-2 spacecraft has been performed successfully at 1452 hrs (IST) on Wednesday as planned. The orbit raising was executed using the onboard propulsion system for a firing duration of 57 seconds. The new orbit will be 230 X 45163 km.
ISRO on Monday launched Chandrayaan-2 on-board its powerful rocket GSLV MkIII M1 from the spaceport of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The three-component spacecraft weighing 3,850 kg comprises of an orbiter, the lander 'Vikram' and the rover 'Pragyan'.
GSLV MKIII M1 successfully placed Chandrayaan–2 spacecraft into a highly elliptical orbit of 170 x 45475 km. The spacecraft will be subjected to a series of orbit manoeuvres in the coming weeks to take it to the vicinity of moon, with the rover soft landing planned on September 7.
Immediately after Chandrayaan-2's separation from the rocket, the solar array of the spacecraft automatically got deployed and the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network at Bengaluru successfully took control of the spacecraft,
The spacecraft's mission plan include earth bound maneuvers, trans lunar insertion, lunar bound maneuvers, Vikram separation and Vikram touch down.
Subsequent to the rescheduling of the launch, which was initially planned for July 15, the space agency has tweaked the orbital phases, increasing earth-bound phase to 23 days as against 17 days planned originally.
After the first successful orbit raising on Wednesday, the second orbit raising manoeuver is scheduled on July 26, 2019, at 0109 hrs (IST) for a targeted orbit of 262.9 x 54848 km. This will be followed by three more orbit raising manoeuvers.
At the end of the Earth-bound phase, the orbit of the spacecraft will be finally raised to over 1.05 lakh km before nudging it into the Lunar Transfer Trajectory taking it to the proximity of moon in the next two days. The trans lunar insertion of the spacecraft is now scheduled for August 18 and it is scheduled to reach moon by August 20.
If successful, it will make India the fourth country after Russia, the US and China to pull off a soft landing on the moon.
The ISRO is aiming for a soft landing of the lander, Vikram, in the South Pole region of the moon where no country has gone so far.
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The mission, which carries a total of 13 payloads, including three from the Europe, two from the US and one Bulgaria, seeks to improve understanding of the moon which could lead to discoveries that will benefit India and humanity as a whole.
A Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) of US space agency NASA is among the payloads and is aimed at understanding dynamics of Earths moon system and deriving clues on Lunar interior.
The lander Vikram, named after father of Indian space research programme Dr Vikram A. Sarabhai, carrying the rover Pragyan, will be landed in a high plain between two craters at a latitude of about 70 degrees South of the moon.
Then the 27-kg Pragyan meaning wisdom in Sanskrit and a six-wheeled robotic vehicle, will set out on its job of collecting information on lunar surface.
A safe site free of hazards for landing would be decided based on pictures sent back by the camera onboard the lander and after touchdown the rover will carry out experiments for 14 Earth days, equalling one Lunar Day.
