Vikram: India's Journey to the South Pole of the Moon
Moon, the only natural satellite of earth has become the most
interesting space object from the dawn of civilization. Since spacecraft was created, people have travelled towards the moon mostly. ISRO's Chandrayaan 2 is
the most recent update in the history of lunar expeditions.
Chandryan 2,
ISRO's second lunar mission
was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on 22nd July 2019.It was
carried by GSLV Mark 3 rocket. The spacecraft was destined to reach the Moon's Orbit
on 20th August 2019. The main objective of the mission was to map and study the variation of lunar
surface and composition as well as to trace lunar water. The
main lunar module consisted of three important parts: an Orbiter, a Lander named Vikram and the Rover
named Pragyan. The Lunar Lander Vikram, named in tribute to Vikram Sarabhai,
father of Indian space research programme got separated from the orbital on
September 2, 2019.
India was preparing to become the first country to land a
mission on the south pole of the moon. Vikram was designed to safely land on slopes
up to 12° as well as to function for one lunar day, equivalent to 14 days on
earth.
On 7th September 2019, when the Nation was waiting to be the
witness of the history, ISRO lost contact with Vikram at the last moment.
Unfortunately we were only 2.1 km apart.
Initially it was declared as a crash. On 16th November,2019
the failure analysis report blames a software glitch as a reason of the crash. Both NASA and ISRO tried to
trace Vikram to their best
capacity. On 10th September 2019, ISRO announced that Vikram had been
located but no communication was possible. It's true that we can't reach the final destination, but it is
also true that we did achieve
95% success, which is really appreciable.We can't stop, we should keep on making attempts.We believe, one day, India will step on the moon. We all
are waiting for that bright moment.
Debankur Kundu
ECE,1st year.
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