Chandrayan-2, the countdown to search for water on the moon!

On 14^th November 2008, the Moon Impact Probe separated from Chandrayaan-1 orbiter and struck the south pole, creating history as India became the fourth country to research and develop its own technology and place its flag on the moon. Now, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) stands ready to take things up a notch.

On 14^th July 2019, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 is scheduled to launch, with hopes and prayers of more than a billion people including our international partners. This mission, if successful, would be a milestone for future human’s settlement and commercialization of the moon. Chandrayan-2’s landing site, near the southern pole of the moon, is what distinguishes it from all the other moon missions to date. Due to the extremely uneven surface near the poles, other missions had landed near the plainer equatorial belt, but Indian Chandrayan-2 has taken up the challenge to be the first nation to attempt a landing on the crater-filled surface.

Chandrayaan-2 would be launched by a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk III), the most powerful launcher to date developed indigenously and put into the Earth’s parking orbit of 170 km perigee and 40,400 km apogee. It will then perform the trans-lunar injection, which will drift it from the Earth’s orbit towards the moon’s orbit. The mission includes a lunar orbiter, lander and rover, all fabricated in house. At the same time, it will carry some instruments from our international partners – USA, Europe and Bulgaria.

After entering the moon’s orbit, the orbiter will orbit at an altitude of 100 km and will carry five instruments –

1.    X-ray spectrometer (to map the elements on the lunar surface)

2.    Synthetic Aperture Radar (to probe under the surface and search for water ice)

3.    Imaging IR Spectrometer (to study for minerals, water molecules and hydroxyl)

4.    Neutral Mass Spectrometer (to study the lunar exosphere) and,

5.     Terrain Mapping Camera (to prepare a 3D map for geologists).

While the orbiter will continue its circumambulation around the moon, the lander, Vikram will carry another five scientific instruments –

1.    Seismometer (to study moon-quakes)

2.    Thermal probe (for studying thermal properties of the surface)

3.    Langmuir probe (for measuring the density and variation of lunar surface plasma)

4.    Radio occultation (for measuring the total electron content) and,

5.    Laser retroreflector array (for precise measurement of Earth-moon distance)

6.    Along with the 6-wheeled AI-powered rover Pragyan,

The expected touchdown date is set for 6^th September 2019. The rover is expected to operate for around 1 lunar day or 14 earth days and traverse around 500 meters on the lunar surface while carrying out vital experiments. 

Chandrayan-1’s NASA Moon Mineralogy Mapper on board the orbiter had discovered the presence of ice water in the depth of craters, the region of perpetual darkness, on the lunar poles, especially the South Pole. According to the European Space Agency (ESA) scientists, the grains on the lunar surface containing oxygen molecules absorb hydrogen nuclei from the solar winds to form hydroxyl (OH-) and water (H2O).  Some scientists believe that ice-sheet might have been brought and deposited here from the impact of comets. Catering to such evidence of water ice from the southern tips, this mission has chosen the south pole as its landing site with the objective to obtain “the firmest conclusions on the distribution of water on the Moon’s surface”. 

The properties of Moon revealed in the recent past has aroused extreme interest in this celestial body, which has started the space race 2.0. If the presence of water-ice can be confirmed and its distribution is found, then it can be mined and extracted to form rocket fuel and oxygen for future settlements. It can then become a vital part in carrying humans to the mars, a cosmic gas station for the journey from Earth to Mars. Owing to the low gravitational pull of the moon, taking off would be less energy intensive. Therefore, the moon would not only be a pit stop for the inter-planetary journey but also for other space missions – like asteroid mining. Studies have revealed that asteroid contains significant quantities of rare earth and valuable metals like Platinum, Palladium, Iridium, Osmium etc. As these elements deplete, soon in the future it would become economical to mine these from asteroids and other celestial bodies. This day might not be as distant as you expect since in 2012 a group of entrepreneurs have established a company named Planetary Resources to extract valuable resources from asteroids and bring them back to earth. Not only this, the company is backed by some of the biggest players of Silicon Valley including Larry Page (CEO Alphabet Inc.), Oscar-winning director James Cameron and more. The moon rocks, further, have been found to contain an abundant amount of Helium 3, an important source of future energy - the fusion reactors. Current nuclear power plants work on fission reaction to generate electricity in which an unstable heavy nucleus is split into two lighter nuclei. However, fusion combines atomic nuclei to form heavier nuclei generates more energy from the former and therefore is more desirable. Analysis of moon rocks brought back from the Apollo missions has revealed that lunar surface also contains an abundant amount of elements which are present in trace amounts on the Earth’s surface like Platinum. Today, Chinese deposits account for 97% of world trade of such rare earth elements. Thus this is yet another factor attracting exploitation of this celestial body.

The space race between the USA and USSR had given us the Gemini and Apollo missions, the technological advancements which were of unprecedented magnitude. Such advancement of the technological frontier is always welcomed, and if not anything we will always have such experience and advancements as our legacy. The space race 2.0 is not only witnessing government support and funding but is also attracting private firms like Elon Musk’s (Falcon 9 program) and Jeff Bezos’s (Blue origins program). Another private group named as Space Express has already become the first every organisation to get the governmental permission to mine ice on the moon. On April 2019, Israel attempted to land on the moon, but unfortunately, it crashed. On January 2019, China landed successfully on the far side of the moon for the first time. Now, India is planning to soft land at the Southern Pole of the moon in July 2019, making it the first country to do so. Later, ISRO has also scheduled human space flights for late 2021 or early 2022. At the same time, NASA is also working to put people back on the moon by 2024, and this time the objective is to stay. Space race has begun again, but this time to transform the moon grains into money. 
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