GS Paper - 3 (Space Technology)

The lander and rover might have crash-landed on the lunar surface, but the Chandrayaan-2 mission itself has just completed 9,000 revolutions around the Moon. The onboard instruments are also functioning nominally, as Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) Chairman K Sivan said on 6 September 2021.

What

  1. At the launch of a two-day Lunar Science Workshop-2021, Sivan said eight payloads onboard the mission’s spacecraft are in functional mode, relaying remote and in-situ observations of the lunar surface from an altitude of 100 km.
  2. The workshop is to commemorate the spacecraft’s two years around the Moon.
  3. The space agency is preparing for Chandrayaan-3 to make another go at lunar landing.
  4. The orbiter from the second mission has generated data that Sivan said was ‘very much encouraging.’
  5. The Chandrayaan-2 mission featured an Orbiter, Lander and Rover designed to explore the lunar South pole.
  6. Launched onboard GSLV Mk-III on 22 July 2019, the mission reached the lunar orbit on 20 August 2021.
  7. The mission went as planned till 6 September 2021, when the lander and rover crash-landed after separating from the orbiter.