Chandrayaan-2 was successfully launched into space on 22nd July 2019. On August 20, 2019, exactly a year ago, it was launched into the lunar orbit. Now that the space shuttle has been orbiting the moon for a year, ISRO has acknowledged that it is completely in good shape. The space agency has also mentioned that the space shuttle has enough fuel to last seven more years in the lunar orbit.
ISRO’s stand
Adding the Chandrayaan-2’s landing on the moon was not exactly a soft one, ISRO mentions that it successfully landed on the moon a year ago. Till date, the orbiter has successfully completed 4,400 orbits around the moon, with all its 8 instruments being perfectly okay. ISRO also divulged that the orbiter is correctly maintaining a 100 +/- 25 polar orbit. They also stated that Chandrayaan-2 can further continue to do so for the next seven years. This long life can be of great importance for the global community in the future.
Chandrayaan-2’s manoeuvres
Chandrayaan-2 was a special mission for India. It was India’s first attempt at a soft landing on the southern pole of the moon. However, the lander Vikram could not bring into effect the much-anticipated soft-landing. And thus India launched the chance of being the only country to successfully land on the southern pole of the moon. But even though it experienced a hard landing, Chandrayaan-2 has been perfectly functioning.
In spite of the hard landing, the space shuttle has been mapping the lunar surface and sending appropriate data to the folks at ISRO. It also acquired many images that were essential to carry out a study on the lunar surface. Throughout this last year, the space shuttle has been helping in the study of the moon’s outer atmosphere. This shall mark an important contribution of this second Chandrayaan in lunar science. Hopefully, Chandrayaan-2 will help to focus on a lot more points in the future.
Also, Read China on a mission to Red planet!
