File photo of India’s second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, taking off aboard the GSLV Mk III-M1 launch vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
Global mapping of the lunar surface and polar coverage are carried out according to the mission’s plan, while the public release of Chandrayaan-2 scientific data will begin in October, ISRO said.
- PTI
- Last update: July 23, 2020, 12:01 AM IST
As India’s second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2 marked a year of completion of launch by GSLV MkIII M1 on Wednesday, the Indian Space Research Organization said its eight payloads are working well.
Global mapping of the lunar surface and polar coverage are being carried out according to the mission’s plan, while the public release of Chandrayaan-2 scientific data for global use will begin in October, the space agency said.
“Extensive data on Chandrayaan-2 payloads have been acquired and parameters are being derived for the presence of water ice in the polar regions, infrared and X-ray based spectroscopic mineral information and the presence of argon-40, a gas condensable at mid and high latitudes on the Moon, which is released internally by radioactive decay of 40K, “ISRO said.
The report on the main findings of the Chandrayaan-2 scientific experiments was planned to be published at the Annual Lunar Planetary Science Conference in March 2020, but was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
The public release of Chandrayaan-2 scientific data for global use will begin in October 2020, where details will be provided to access the data, he added. Chandrayaan-2, destined to land a rover at the unknown Lunar South Pole, launched on July 22, 2019 aboard the country’s most powerful geosynchronous launch vehicle.
The spacecraft inserted into lunar orbit on August 20, 2019. The Chandrayaan-2 mission was India’s first attempt to land on the lunar surface.
ISRO had planned to land at the South Pole of the lunar surface. However, the Vikram lander landed in September last year. Its orbiter, still in lunar orbit, has a mission life of seven years. ISRO officials had previously said that it would also be used for the third lunar mission.
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