On Saturday Sep 07,2019,India’s first attempt to land a spacecraft on the Moon has not been successful.
The lander of Chandrayaan-2,
called Vikram, did not slow down at the expected rate towards the
latter part of its descent, and most likely hit the lunar surface at a
speed greater than required for safe landing.
The ground control station had lost contact with the Vikram lander when it was about 2.1 km above the Moon.
The mission comprised an orbiter, a lander and rover.
The orbiter part is functioning normally. Most of the scientific investigations of the mission are supposed to be carried by instruments onboard the orbiter, including studies to find more evidence of water on the Moon.
The lander and rover had a mission life of only 14 days while the orbiter will function for at least one year.
Scientists insist that 80-90 per cent of the science output of the mission have to come from the orbiter, and that has not been affected at all.
When contact was lost, Vikram lander was travelling at 50 to 60 metres per second (180 to 200 km per hour). It was decelerating, but not fast enough to slow down to a speed of 2 metres/second (7.2 km/hr) that was required for a safe landing. Vikram was designed to absorb the shock of an impact even at 5 metres/second (18 km/hr). At the rate it was decelerating, it could not even have attained a speed of 5 metres/second before touchdown. It is likely to have hit the Moon at a far greater speed, possibly damaging itself and instruments on board.
No comments:
Post a Comment