ISRO starts landing tests for Chandrayaan-2 mission
The Indian Space Research Organsiation has
started a series of ground and aerial tests linked to the critical Moon landing
of Chandrayaan-2 in Karnataka.
Key facts:
- The tests are being conducted at
ISRO’s science city located in Karnataka.
- ISRO Satellite Centre or ISAC, the
lead centre for the second Moon mission, has artificially created close to
ten craters to simulate the lunar terrain and test the Lander’s sensors.
- A small ISRO aircraft has been
carrying equipment with sensors over these craters to plan the tasks
ahead.
- In the coming months, ISAC would
conduct many tests: on avionics and electronics; testing the Lander’s
legs, followed by a combined full test.
Read: Chandrayaan-1 Recently completed 8 years
About Chandrayaan-2:
Chandrayaan-2 is tentatively set for late
2017 or early 2018 and includes soft-landing on Moon and moving a rover on its
surface.
- It is an advanced version of the
previous Chandrayaan-1 mission. It consists of an orbiter, lander and
rover configuration.
- The Orbiter spacecraft when
launched from Sriharikota will travel to the Moon and release the Lander,
which will in turn deploy a tiny Rover to roam the lunar surface — all
three sending data and pictures to Earth.
- It is planned to be launched as a composite stack into the earth parking orbit (EPO) of 170 X 18,500 km by GSLV-Mk II.
