Chandrayaan-2 completes one year around Moon, all systems intact, says Isro

India's Chandrayaan-2 today completes a year around the Moon. All the instruments are currently performing well.  

On July 22, 2019 the GSLV rocket nicknamed 'Bahubali’ blasted off from the second launch pad at the rocket port at Sriharikota near Chennai. The Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was inserted into lunar orbit on August 20, 2019.  

Though the soft-landing attempt was not successful, the orbiter, which was equipped with eight scientific instruments, was successfully placed in the lunar orbit.

"The orbiter completed more than 4400 orbits around the Moon and all the instruments are currently performing well," said the Indian Space Research Organisation.

The spacecraft is healthy and performance of subsystems are normal. The orbiter is being maintained in 100 +/- 25 km polar orbit with periodic orbit maintenance (OM) manoeuvers. So far, 17 OMs are carried out since achieving 100 km lunar orbit on September 24, 2019. There is adequate onboard fuel to remain operational for about seven years, said Isro.

Some of the salient results from one year observations including acquiring images during 220 orbits consisting of nearly 4 million sq km area and generated DEM and Ortho-images.

The Moon provides the best linkage to understand Earth’s early history and offers an undisturbed record of the inner Solar system environment. It could also be a base for future human space exploration of the solar system and a unique laboratory, unlike any on Earth, for fundamental physics investigations. 

In spite of several missions to the Moon, there remains several unanswered questions. Continued high resolution studies of its surface, sub-surface/interior and its low-density exosphere, are essential to address diversities in lunar surface composition and to trace back the origin and evolution of the Moon. 

The clear evidence from India’s first mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-1, on the extensive presence of surface water and the indication for subsurface polar water-ice deposits, argues for more focused studies on the extent of water on the surface, below the surface and in the tenuous lunar exosphere, to address the true origin and availability of water on Moon.