ISRO postpones launch of Chandrayaan-2 mission

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has postponed Chandrayaan-2, India’s second mission to Moon to January 2019.

• This will be the second time the mission has been postponed.
• The ambitious mission was earlier planned to be launched in April 2018 and was later fixed for October 2019.
• With this delay, India may lose fourth position in the world for soft-landing on the Moon to Israel as it too is planning to launch a Moon mission in December 2018.

About the Chandrayaan 2 Mission:

• Chandrayaan-2 is India’s most challenging and India’s second mission to Moon.
• It is an advanced version of the previous Chandrayaan-1 mission (launched in 2008) which only involved orbiting around Moon, Chandrayaan-2 is a much complicated mission as it involves an orbiter, lander and rover.
• The mission components have been completely developed indigenously by ISRO and consists of Orbiter, Lander and Rover configuration.
• In this mission, ISRO will for the first time attempt to land a rover on Moon’s south-pole.
• The mission involves soft-landing on the lunar surface and the rover will walk and analyze the content on the Moon’s surface.
• Chandrayaan 2 will be launched on board of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk III (GSLV-F10).
• It will be ISRO’s first inter-planetary mission to land a rover on any celestial body.
• The spacecraft (orbiter) weighs around 3,290 kg and it will orbit around Moon and perform objectives of remote sensing the Moon.
• Once GSLV-F10 put the spacecraft in 170 km x 20,000 km elliptical orbit, the orbiter will be manoeuvred towards the 100-km lunar orbit by firing thrusters and then the lander housing the rover will separate from the orbiter.
• The six wheeled rover will move on an unexplored lunar surface and collect soil or rock samples for on-site chemical analysis to gather scientific information on lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, lunar exosphere and signatures of hydroxyl and water-ice.
• The data will be relayed to Earth through the orbiter.
• The rover will move around the landing site in semi-autonomous mode as decided by the ground commands.
• The soft-landing on the surface of the Moon will be the most complex part of Chandrayaan 2 mission.
• Only US, Russia and China have been able to soft-land a spacecraft on the lunar surface.

Questions:

Q1. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has postponed Chandrayaan-2, India’s second mission to Moon to?
a. January 2019
b. January 2020
c. January 2021
d. January 2022

Q2. How many countries have been able to soft-land a spacecraft on the lunar surface so far?
a. 1
b. 2
c. 3
d. 4