After the unsuccessful attempt of soft-landing of the Chandrayaan-2's 'Vikram' lander on the Moon's South Pole, the Indian Space Research Organisation on Saturday said that it was a highly complex mission.
The space agency said the mission represented a significant technological leap compared to the previous missions, which brought together an Orbiter, Lander and Rover to explore the unexplored south pole of the Moon.
In a statement, ISRO said since the launch of Chandrayaan-2 on July 22, 2019, not only India but the whole world watched its progress from one phase to the next with great expectations and excitement.
"This was a unique mission which aimed at studying not just one area of the Moon but all the areas combining the exosphere, the surface as well as the sub-surface of the moon in a single mission," ISRO said.
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The space agency said the Orbiter has already been placed in its intended orbit around the Moon and shall enrich understanding of the moon’s evolution and mapping of the minerals and water molecules in the Polar Regions, using its eight state-of-the-art scientific instruments.
"The Orbiter camera is the highest resolution camera (0.3m) in any lunar mission so far and shall provide high-resolution images which will be immensely useful to the global scientific community. The precise launch and mission management has ensured a long life of almost 7 years instead of the planned one year."
The ISRO said the Vikram Lander followed the planned descent trajectory from its orbit of 35 km to just below 2 km above the surface. "All the systems and sensors of the Lander functioned excellently until this point and proved many new technologies such as variable thrust propulsion technology used in the Lander. The success criteria were defined for each and every phase of the mission," it said.
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The space agency said that till date 90 to 95 per cent of the mission objectives have been accomplished and it will continue to contribute to Lunar science, notwithstanding the loss of communication with the Lander.
In the last stage snag, the communication link between the moon lander and the orbiter got snapped as the former was descending towards the moon's South Pole early on Saturday, throwing suspense over the mission's fate.
