With India’s first lander-rover mission — Chandrayaan - 2 — scheduled for launch on July 22, former Chairman of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) K. Radhakrishnan said space scientists will be looking forward to a safe and soft touchdown for the lander named ‘Vikram’.
Unlike the earlier mission to the moon in 2008, when the spacecraft orbited the moon at a distance of 100 km, Chandrayaan – 2 envisages a landing. The task is to ensure a safe and soft touchdown at the precise predetermined location, said Dr. Radhakrishnan while delivering the Foundation Day lecture at Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Institute for Management Development (SDMIMD) here on Friday. He said the spacecraft will move at a space of 1.6 km per second in the orbit of moon, which is almost 6,000 km per hour. Comparing the landing of Vikram to the touchdown of aircraft in airports, he said the aircraft controlled by a pilot makes a landing in an airport at a speed of 800 km per hour in a well-defined airfield with the help of expert navigation. “Here (spacecraft) it is travelling at 6,000 km per hour; it has to reduce its speed, navigate itself to that (safe) location”, he said, and added that the lander also has to avoid craters and ensure that no boulders are around so that “its four legs sit properly”.
About fifty years ago , when Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin first landed on the moon, they could have used their ‘cognitive’ capability. “Now, it has to be done autonomously by the Chandrayaan’s lander. That is the challenge you will see and it will be done in sixteen minutes in the first week of September,” Dr. Radhakrishnan said.
Pointing out that India was in the frontline of the space programmes across the world, the former ISRO chief said India today had a constellation of 45 satellites with the help of which the country was reaping the benefits of space applications in various areas. He pointed out that the bedrock of India’s space programme, initiated in 1962 by Vikram Sarabhai, was to use space technology to help the people.
Now, humanity was moving towards exploiting resources from celestial bodies. The global space enterprise was worth $360 billion and India had made its own niche in the field consistently.
