Saturday (September 21): After fifteen days of rigorous efforts to establish contact with the lander Vikram, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) chief K. Sivan told that the agency has not been able to establish contact with the Vikram lander. He said, though, the orbiter is doing very well.
“Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is doing very well. There are 8 instruments in the orbiter and each instrument is doing exactly what it meant to do. Regarding the lander, we have not been able to establish communication with it. Our next priority is Gaganyaan mission,” Sivan was quoted as saying by ANI.
Sivan also said the Chandrayaan-2 mission has achieved 98 per cent of its objectives, even as scientists are working hard to establish contact with lander ‘Vikram’.
“Why we are saying Chandrayaan-2 achieved 98 per cent success is because of two objectives — one is science and the other technology demonstration. In case of technology demonstration, the success percentage was almost full,” Sivan said.
“Chandrayan 2 Mission comprises a very big size science component and a small technology demonstration component which include soft-landing near south pole of the moon. The bulk of experiments carried out in the inter-planetary science is in the orbiter. Initially, the life of orbiter was only one year, but due to optimum mission operations, the life of orbiter has increased to 7.5 years. Now, scientists would receive 7.5 times data more than is expected. It is really a huge success,” said Dr. Sivan.
Sivan further said that the space agency’s next priority will be the Gaganyaan mission.
“Gaganyaan is extremely important for India as it would boost science and technological capabilities of the country. By 2020 December, we would have first unmanned mission of human space flight. And the second human unmanned space flight, we targeting July 2021. By December 2021, the first Indian will be carried by our own rocket. ISRO is working on that,” said Dr. Sivan.
Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram Landing: Things are progressing as per plan
