All About the Chandrayaan Programme!

CHANDRAYAAN-1

Chandrayaan-1 was launched in the year 2008 from Satish Dhawan Space Center as the first lunar probe of India. There were various motives behind this step but the major concern was to evolve, outline and launch and orbit a spacecraft that use Indian-made launch vehicle. The mission was supposed to be of 2 years but sadly in 2009, ISRO lost contact with Chandrayaan-1.

Team Of Chandrayaan-1

Major Facts About Chandrayaan-1

1. It was the first-ever moon mission of India.
2. It weighed 525 kg (with no fuel) and was the size of a refrigerator.
3. Chandrayaan-1 was powered by solar arrays.
4. The estimated cost of this mission was around 358 million.

And the most important,

“Chandrayaan-1 was successful in proving the existence of water on the moon”

CHANDRAYAAN-2

In the year 2019, ISRO launched Chandrayaan 2 with the objectives of finding or mapping the lunar water using Pragyan. All of the parts of Chandrayaan 2 were built as well as assembled in India. But the history of Chandrayaan goes far behind what we know today. The lander of Chandrayaan 2 was supposed to be made by Russia as was signed in an alliance by the Indian as well as the Russian government. The launching of Chandrayaan 2 was postponed twice. The first time because Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) was unable to finish the lander and second time due to the fact that ROSCOSMOS had failed in their mission to mars and some of the technical aspects of Fobos Grunt mission to mars were related to the Chandrayaan’s, they had to be revised. In 2015, ROSCOSMOS adduced that they were not able to finish the lander; India took the responsibility to finish the mission itself.

Why Was Chandrayaan-2 Mission Important To India?

There are several reasons that make this mission important to India especially that it takes the baton from the first lunar probe Chandrayaan-1. Apart from that, here are some of the other reasons listed below:

1. The most powerful space launcher designed and developed by India itself launched Chandrayaan-2.
2. Chandrayaan-2 was supposed to study the southern area of the moon, which no country has ever done.
3. It had a budget of 600 million, which is the most cost-effective, this kind of all the missions done by NASA or any country.

Team Behind Chandrayaan-2

Scientists and Engineers who were of utmost importance to the development of Chandrayaan-2:

• Mylswamy Annadurai (Project Director)
• Ritu Karidhal (Mission Director)
• Muthayya Vanitha (Project Director)
• Chandrakanta Kumar (Deputy Project Director dealing with Radiofrequency systems)
• Amitabh Singh (Deputy Project Director dealing with Optical Payload Data Processing, SAC)

Chandrayaan-2 was a special mission also because it was the first mission led by two women:

Muthaya Vanitha who was the project director, and Ritu Karidhal, the mission director of the mission. It was developed to serve as a blueprint or a prototype for future missions in which, India intends to send Indian astronauts to mars and moon. It was also the very first mission whose launching as well as the landing was live broadcasted on Television.

“Chandrayaan-2 lost contact with the ground station for a brief period of time but now as the reports suggest it has been located and scientists are trying their best to make contact.”

CHANDRAYAAN-3

Chandrayaan-3 will be the third mission of ISRO’s Chandrayaan programme in collaboration with Japan’s space agency- JAXA. The final decision has not been taken yet but Japan is more likely to be responsible for the launch vehicle H3 that right now in under development whereas ISRO will be responsible for the lander. Sample collecting, Water prospecting and analyzing are to be the main objectives of this mission.

With the two successful missions of Chandrayaan Programme, ISRO has made us proud of being Indians. Chandrayaan-1 might haven’t completed it tenure but it did provide us with 95 per cent information and strength to carry on the legacy, which resulted in the construction of Chandrayaan-2. And now after this mission of Chandrayaan-2, we all are looking forward to Chandrayaan-3.