ISRO Chandrayaan-2 Scheduled For 2017 Take Off

Chandrayaan-2, India's ambitious second mission to the moon has been scheduled to take off sometime in 2017, the Indian Parliament was informed yesterday. Jitendra Singh, the minister of state in PMO informed the upper house (Rajya Sabha) in a written reply. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is aiming for the 2017-2018 time-frame for the actual launch but the plan is to have the Chandrayaan-2 take off in 2017. The Chandrayaan-2 will be a 'Made In India' orbiter, lander and rover configuration machine to be put up in space by ISRO's GSLV system.

ISRO's making the second mission an advanced version of the initial Chandrayaan mission which was launched back in 2008. The first mission itself was very successful, completing about 95% of its target objectives before experiencing technical glitches that lead to the abortion of the mission.

ISRO's engineers will be installing latest technologies so that the Chandrayaan-2 can carry out newer experiments. The rover will roam around on the surface of Moon to pick up solid and rock samples for an on-site analysis. The data collected by on-board lab will be related to the orbiter which will then convey it to the ground control and monitoring room.

Initially Russia was involved in the design and development of the lander but it withdrew from the mission citing inability to provide the lander by 2015. ISRO's engineers decided to build the lander on their own. The orbiter will orbit the moon at an altitude of about 200 km and carry about 5 instruments. The 'Soft Lander' will ensure that the rover is landed safely on Moon's surface and the Rover itself will trot the surface of moon. IIT Kanpur is in charge of design and fabrication of these three systems.


Check out further information about the Chandrayaan-2 on the wikipedia page. We promise to keep you posted about latest developments on the India's ambitious moon mission.

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