India made history earlier this week when its unmanned spacecraft, Chandrayaan-2, successfully launched and deployed its rover, Pragyan, onto the lunar surface. The successful landing of Pragyan marks India’s first robotic mission to the Moon and is the culmination of an incredible feat of engineering and ingenuity.
Chandrayaan-2, which is a joint venture between India’s space agency, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), was launched in July of 2019, but it only made the historic soft landing on the Moon this week.
The spacecraft has the distinction of being the first mission to the moon to be piloted remotely, as the rover is operated from India. The rover is powered by photovoltaic cells and is carrying four instruments to analyze the lunar surface, including an X-ray spectrometer, an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, and a laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy experiment.
The rover’s primary mission is to map the composition of the lunar surface and search for the presence of water. ISRO has also said that the rover has the capability to travel up to 500 meters on the moon’s surface.
Pragyan is also fitted with multiple instruments to measure the intensity of the moon’s magnetic field, as well as to research the surface temperature and radiation levels. The rover has also been designed to survive during the lunar night, when temperatures may plummet to below -180°C.
The successful launch of Chandrayaan-2 and the deployment of Pragyan is a major milestone for India’s space program and shows that the country is increasingly becoming a major space power. The mission is part of a larger mission to explore all of the planets in our solar system and to search for conditions suitable for sustaining human life.
ISRO has declared that the mission has been ‘very successful’ and that India’s space program now ranks alongside the most powerful space agencies in the world. India has already sent a satellite to Mars and plans to launch its first crewed mission to the moon in 2022.
The success of Chandrayaan-2 marks a new era in space exploration for India, and demonstrates the country’s determination to be a major player in the exploration of the universe.