Chandrayaan 2 vs Chandrayaan 1: How ISRO’s two Moon missions are different

Chandrayaan 2 vs Chandrayaan 1: How ISRO’s two Moon missions are different

Chandrayaan 2 latest updates: The countdown for the country’s second lunar mission, Chandrayaan 2 to be launched off the Earth’s domain towards the Moon’s orbit has now begun! Enthusiastic masses are feeling high level of excitement and nervousness as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will lead the nation in taking a giant leap in space. However, this Moon mission is not just special because of its several first-time milestones but also because it holds many differences from the country’s premier lunar mission, Chandrayaan 1. Apart from having extremely different components, the two missions also set out to achieve separate results. Here are a few insights about the two moon missions which highlight their differences:

Chandrayaan 1:

ISRO’s very first lunar mission, Chandrayaan 1 was launched on October 22, 2008 which had orbited the moon more than 3,400 times and played an imperative role in the discovery of water molecules on the lunar surface. This was confirmed until the spacecraft completed its life cycle and later, ISRO lost communication with it on August 29, 2009

Chandrayaan 1 had sent one of its instruments, known as the moon impact probe (MIP) in order to crash land on the lunar surface. The launch vehicle for Chandrayaan 1 was ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11) standard configuration

Chandrayaan 1 was designed to just orbit around the Moon and make the observations with its instruments on board. During the orbit, the closest that the spacecraft came was 100 km from the lunar surface

ISRO later declared that the data sent by the MIP throughout the mission, while it was on its way to the Moon had provided the evidence of the presence of water molecules but those findings could not be published

However, the confirmation of water molecules on the Moon had come through results on the data produced by another instrument which was on-board Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, namely the M3 or Moon Mineralogy Mapper, which had been installed by NASA.

Watch Video: Everything you need to know about Chandrayaan 2

Chandrayaan 2:

Fundamentally, to begin with, Chandrayaan 2 will have three components, the Orbiter, the Lander ‘Vikram’ and the Pragyan ‘Rover’

The Orbiter and Lander are being mechanically interfaced as well as stacked together, becoming an integrated module inside the launch vehicle of Chandrayaan 2, which is the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-III or the GSLV MK-III

The Pragyan Rover which is powered through artificial intelligence (AI), is being housed inside the Lander, capable of communication only with it

After the launch of Chandrayaan 2 into Earth’s orbit by the GSLV MK-III, the integrated module will be reaching the Moon’s orbit through the orbiter propulsion module

This is the first time that ISRO is attempting a soft-landing on the Moon’s south polar region, with home grown technology

The six-wheeled AI powered Rover will conduct in-situ experiments on the lunar surface and also study the composition of the surface near the landing site

Chandrayaan 2’s orbiter will orbit around the Moon, while Lander will soft land on the lunar surface, deploying the Rover

The scientific payloads of all these three components will perform mineralogical and elemental studies on the lunar surface

Chandrayaan 2 will further establish the results of Chandrayaan 1 for the confirmation and proof of water molecules on the Moon

         related : Chandrayaan-2 to enter Moon orbit around 9.30am tomorrow

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