Chandrayaan-2 begins detailed study of moon; NASA hunt for Vikram continues

ISRO Orbiter starts detailed mineralogical study of the lunar surface

Chandrayaan-2moon-image-IIRS-ISRO The first illuminated image of the lunar surface released by Chandrayaan-2 | ISRO Twitter

The Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter on Thursday began its spectroscopic study of the lunar surface, according to ISRO. The space agency released its first illuminated images of the lunar surface using the Imaging IR Spectroscope (IIRS).

As Chandrayaan-2 makes its polar orbit over seven years, the IIRS will take the detailed mineralogical and volatile measurements of the moon in the spectral range of 0.8 to 5 micrometres at a resolution of around 20 nanometres.

The IIRS also measures water/hydroxyl features at high spatial resolutions like 80 metres as well as spectral resolutions like 20 nanometres for the first time.

These measurements are expected to, over time, provide comprehensive maps of water and mineralogical features on the moon. According to ISRO's post on Chandrayaan-2's payloads, the IIRS will enable such measurements to be taken for the 'first time' at such a spectral range and resolution. 

According to ISRO, the image seen above covers “part of the lunar farside in the northern hemisphere” with a few prominent craters seen in the image (Sommerfield, Stebbins and Kirkwood).

The IIRS “is designed to measure the reflected sunlight and emitted part of moon light from the lunar surface in narrow and contiguous spectral channels (bands) ranging from 800-5000 nanometer (0.8-5.0 micrometer).”

Meanwhile, another lunar orbiter, the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), is expected to make a more rigorous search for Chandrayaan-2’s crashed Vikram lander, with the hope of finding out what happened to it.

The LRO had attempted to snap images of the rover on October during a flyby on September 17—though bad lighting due to the dusk timing obscured the site. The LRO passed over the site again on October 14, under better lighting conditions, spelling hope that the lander’s physical condition could be identified at last.

Speaking to IANS, NASA’s LRO project scientist Noah Petro said, “The lighting conditions on Monday were much more favourable, (with) less shadow in the region compared to last month,” adding that the camera team is still evaluating the images.

Petro said they would do a “careful search” and be “as rigorous as possible” to “find out soon” what happened to the moon lander. “This is a large area, we don’t know exactly where we have to look. So it will take some time to search the images because we are looking over a very, very large area,” he said.