The Week India – July 21, 2019

GRAPHICS SREEMANIKANDAN S., SYAM KRISHNAN

ROVER (PRAGYAN)

PAYLOAD

The rover is a six-wheeled AI-powered vehicle which will perform detailed

study of topography, seismography, mineral identification and distribution,

surface chemical composition, thermo-physical characteristics of top soil

and composition of the lunar atmosphere

Mass 27kg

Power 50W

Expected life: One lunar

day (14 earth days)

Solar panel

Alpha Particle X-ray

Spectrometer

THE JOURNEY

Mission director Ritu Karidhal

Project director M. Vanitha

Date of launch July 15, 2019

Date of moon landing September 6/7

Cost of mission

0 603 crore

for spacecraft

0 375 crore

for launcher

Injected into a temporary

earth parking orbit after

three stages of detachment

I

i

o i

L it

(100

from the moon

surface)

I on of

lander into lunar

pre-landing orbit

Orbiter

propulsion

is ignited and

injected into

the lunar transfer

trajectory (LTT)

Earth parking orbit

(170 x 40,400 km

from the Earth surface)

Injection

into lunar

orbit

Lunar orbit

0 x 100 km

m the moonon

surface)ce

Injectioo

landerlanderii

Vikram is expected

to land on

September 6, 2019.

Subsequently, the

rover will roll out

Chandrayaan-2 will

be launched from

Satish Dhawan Space

Centre at Sriharikota

A series of manoeuvres will
raise its orbit and put
Chandrayaan-2 on the LTT

Imaging of the

landing site

region

Navigation

camera

Laser Induced Breakdown

Spectroscope

Orbiter

separation

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Orbit around earth

16 days

Transfer to lunar orbit

5 days

Orbit around moon

27 days

JULY 21, 2019 • THE WEEK 25