The launch of India’s second lunar mission ‘Chandrayaan-2’ has been postponed to October, 2018 as the experts have suggested some tests.
About Chandrayaan-2
The 800-crore INR Chandrayaan-2 mission is a totally indigenous mission
With Chandrayaan-2 ISRO is experimenting with an orbiter, a rover and a lander for the first time.
Once the GSLV-F10 put the spacecraft in the 170 km x 20,000 km elliptical orbit, the orbiter would be manoeuvred towards the 100-km lunar orbit by firing thrusters and then the lander housing the rover will separate from the orbiter.
After a controlled descent, the lander will soft-land near the south pole of the lunar surface and deploy the rover.
Soft-landing on the lunar surface is the most challenging part of the mission.
Till now, only the US, Russia and China have been able to soft-land spacecraft on the lunar surface.
During the 14 Earth days, the six-wheeled rover will have the power to move around 100-200 metre.
The instruments, including a high-intensity camera, on the rover will observe the lunar surface and take images of the moon.
It will send back data to the Earth via the orbiter within 15 minutes that will be useful for analysis of the lunar soil.
Payloads of the 3,290kg Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft will collect scientific information on lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, lunar exosphere and signatures of hydroxyl and water-ice.