The moon-bound Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft is scheduled to undergo a crucial orbit manoeuvre around 9.30 a.m. on Tuesday morning as it approaches its destination.
To make the spacecraft capture the lunar orbit and start going around the moon, its handlers at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will fire its engines briefly to slow it down to capture the moon's orbit. The move, called the Lunar Orbit Insertion or LOI, is probably one of the two top orbit manoeuvres of the mission, along with the high point: the soft-landing of the Vikram lander on the southern polar region of moon on September 7.
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ISRO Chairman K.Sivan said, “It is a very difficult manoeuvre and will mark a major milestone of the mission.”
Without this move, the spacecraft will go out of the lunar ambit and travel into an unknown and unwanted space realm, according to experts who are conversant with the first Indian lunar orbiter mission, Chandrayaan-1 in 2008.
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Reverse step
For the first 24 days of its earth-bound phase, the speed and range of the spacecraft were being boosted to push it towards moon. As it nears the moon, its handlers will do the reverse - lower its speed gradually until it circles the moon pole to pole.
August 20 marks Day 30 since Chandrayaan-2 was launched from Sriharikota on July 22. The spacecraft has been travelling since August 14 to its destination some 3.84 lakh km away. So far, the moves have been similar to Chandrayaan-1.
