India's Second Moon Mission-Chandrayaan-2

Chandrayaan-2 will be an Indo-Russian Mission. It is an advanced version of the previous Chandrayaan-1 mission to Moon. ISRO’s capabi...

Chandrayaan-2 will be an Indo-Russian Mission. It is an advanced version of the previous Chandrayaan-1 mission to Moon. ISRO’s capability to soft-land on the lunar surface will be demonstrated with this mission. Chandrayaan-2 is configured as a two module system comprising of an Orbiter Craft module (OC) and a Lander Craft module (LC) carrying the Rover developed by ISRO. Both the modules are interfaced mechanically by an inter module adapter

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• The Orbiter Craft with payloads onboard will orbit around the moon and perform the objectives of remote sensing the moon. The payloads on the orbiter will conduct mineralogical and elemental studies of the Moon’s surface.


• The Lander Craft with scientific payloads will soft land on the lunar surface at a predetermined location on the lunar surface. Payloads for Lander are under finalization.





Breadboard Model

• The Rover is released by the Lander Craft and has the mission objective of performing mobility activities on low gravity and vacuum of Moon surface with Semi-Autonomous navigation and hazard avoidance capability. The Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) and Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) payloads onboard Rover would perform elemental analysis of the lunar surface near the landing site.

The Rover will be powered with a small solar panel and will have the capability to communicate to IDSN either through Lander Rover Communication System onboard the Lander or through the Orbiter Rover Communication System onboard the Orbiter. The design and development of the 4 wheel Rover Bread Board Model has been completed and mobility activities are successfully demonstrated. Presently, modification of the 4 wheeled Rover to 6 wheeled Rover is in progress.
Sample test bed with lunar soil stimulant has been established at the Terrain Test Facility, ISITE and Rover Bread Board Model (BBM) is tested successfully.