Why Chandrayaan 2 failed?
- June 29, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Why Chandrayaan 2 failed?
Subject : Science and technology
Section: Space technology
Concept :
- The landing of Vikram was targeted for a plane about 600 km from the south pole of the Moon. However, ISRO lost contact with their lander shortly before the scheduled touchdown on September 7.
- When contact was lost, it was travelling at 50 to 60 metres per second (180 to 200 km per hour).
- It was decelerating, but not fast enough to slow down to a speed of 2 metres/second (7.2 km/hr) that was required for a safe landing. Vikram was designed to absorb the shock of an impact even at 5 metres/second (18 km/hr).
- At the rate it was decelerating, it could not even have attained a speed of 5 metres/second before touchdown. It hit the Moon at a far greater speed, damaging itself and the instruments on board.
What was missed because of the crash landing?
- The most obvious miss was the opportunity to demonstrate the technology to make a soft landing in outer space.
- Isro scientists at the time said the accident was caused by a relatively small error that had been identified and corrected. The soon-to-be-launched Chandrayaan-3 mission will demonstrate this technology, hopefully, without any glitches.
- The lander Vikram and rover Pragyaan were carrying instruments to carry out observations on the surface.
- These were supposed to pick up additional information about the terrain, composition and mineralogy.
- With the support of the Orbiter, Vikram and Pragyaan would have provided two diverse sets of data that could have helped prepare a more composite picture of the Moon.
For further notes on Chandrayaan 2 and its findings, refer – https://optimizeias.com/chandrayaan-2/