New Delhi, August 28: India’s second moon mission Chandrayaan-2 will now be launched sometime between January 3, 2019 and February 16, 2019, instead of later this year. The launch of the lunar mission has, so far, been postponed twice in 2018 and now has been fixed for early 2019 as the design was changed to enable it to land on the lunar surface. The mission was initially planned for April 2018 and then was postponed to October 2018.

K Sivan, Chairman, ISRO said that Chandrayaan 2 will be the most complex mission ISRO has ever taken. “In January 2019, we will have a major mission, Chandrayan 2 by GSLV-Mk-III-M1. We have taken a review by experts throughout the country. They appreciated our efforts saying this is the most complex mission ISRO has ever taken”, Sivan informed on Tuesday.

The ISRO Chief informed that as the mass of Chandrayan 2 has increased to 3.8 tonnes, it cannot be launched by GSLV and hence, ISRO has redefined the launch vehicle to GSLV-Mk-III. “Window for launch is 03 Jan-16 Feb. It would be the first mission in the world going near the South Pole, i.e. 72-degree South is landing site”, Sivan added.

Here are some additional features of the lander:

  1. Chandrayaan-2 is India's second mission to the Moon is a totally indigenous mission comprising of an Orbiter, Lander and Rover. The rover is aimed at sending data and images of the lunar surface back to the Earth through the orbiter within 15 minutes.

  2. Additional features of the lander include performance checks at 100 km x 30 km before the commencement of critical descent operation.

  3. 800 N central engine to mitigate upward draft of dust towards craft while landing.

  4. The lander would have an improved lander leg for better stability margins.

  5. After reaching the 100 km lunar orbit, the Lander housing the Rover will separate from the Orbiter. After a controlled descent, the Lander will soft land on the lunar surface at a specified site and deploy a Rover.

  6. The Chandrayaan-2 weighs around 3290 kg and would orbit around the moon and perform the objectives of remote sensing the moon.

  7. The payloads will collect scientific information on lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, lunar exosphere and signatures of hydroxyl and water-ice.

  8. The rover will take nearly 40 days to reach the moon. After reaching, the rover will spend 14 days on Moon, after which it will go in a sleep mode.

  9. The rover's mass will be about 20 kg (44 lb) and will operate on solar power. ISRO says this mission will use and test various new technologies and conduct new experiments.

  10. The instruments on the rover will observe the lunar surface and send back data, which will be useful for analysis of the lunar soil.

ISRO may have two missions in the coming years- Chandrayan-2 by GSLV Mark 3 and the PSLV P45 launching RA-SAT 2B next year. The space agency plans to launch a total of 19 missions in next couple of months. The focus area of these launches was to enhance the communication so that rural India gets high bandwidth data connectivity, somewhere between 80 GBPS to 100 GBPS.

Chandrayaan-2 will be ISRO’s first time attempt to land a rover on the Moon. It must be noted that the moon's orbit is 3,82,000 km away from the earth's surface. The rover of India’s second lunar mission, costing nearly Rs 800 crore, will be made to land near the yet-unexplored south pole.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 28, 2018 04:31 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).