THE LOST CONTACT- “the decade’s greatest disappointment”

By- Vibha Dinesh Sharma (B. Tech Second Year)

Indians have always been fascinated with moon and have given significant contribution to mankind’s
lunar exploration. Moon has been the epicenter for research due to several reasons. A popular
theory believes, before human existence on Earth a major meteoroid clash resulted in breaking a
part of earth, later these “broken parts” combined together and became MOON- and since then it
stayed in our neighborhood. The world is reaching out to the moon for mainly 2 reasons- first one
being the abundance of helium that is deposited on moon, which can prove to be an alternate
source of Energy for Earth. The second reason being, moon may have favorable conditions to
become a site for upcoming human settlements. So, getting to know Moon is very crucial. In an
attempt to uncover the secrets of the South pole of Lunar surface, The Indian Space Research Centre
(ISRO) launched CHANDRAYAAN 2 on 22 July 2019.

Chandrayaan constitutes 3 components- 1. THE ORBITER- Which would orbit 100km from lunar
surface. 2. VIKRAM LANDER- it has the most risk-oriented responsibility, soft-landing near South
pole. 3.PRAGYAN ROVER-For conducting Insitu experiments. It carried 11 payloads- 5 from India, 3
from Europe, 2 from USA and 1 from Bulgana plus it took 1 passive experiment from NASA.

So finally, the moment arrived and on 22 July 2019, GSLV MkIII-M1 Successfully Launched
Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft. After the successful launch, the space-craft had to gradually alter its
orbital path to escape the Earth’s atmosphere. For this, 5 earth bound orbit raising manoeuvres
were performed which gradually increased the orbit between 24 July-06 August using onboard
propulsion system for a firing time of 48 seconds. The next manoeuvre was important -Trans Lunar
Insertion. In was completed successfully on 20 August and with this the Chandrayaan was now in the
Lunar Orbit, getting closer to destination Moon. The journey was closely monitored by the pioneers
at ISRO from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command
Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru.

Now as our Chandrayaan was in the lunar orbit, the next stage was- Lunar Orbit Manoeuvres. 5 of
these were performed from 21 August to 01 September and this reduced Chandrayaan’s orbit size
around moon and brought it even closer to the Lunar surface.

On 2nd September the Lander and the Orbiter separated. The orbiter then stayed in the existing orbit
and the lander was placed in an orbit of 119 km x 127 km. Then 2 de-orbiting manoeuvres were
performed on the Lander on 3 and 4 September, further reducing its orbit.

Then came the day the 7th September. It was this day that India once again knocked the door of
historic achievement. Today was the day, when the Lander would attempt its soft-landing on the
designated site. It was a beautiful night, with every Indian hopefully looking at the moon. Then came
the most difficult time of the mission when the Lander commenced its final journey towards the
lunar surface from its orbit just 35km above the surface. The ISRO chief perfectly defined this time as
“15 MINUTES OF TERROR”. Now not only Indians, but the entire human race was looking up to
Chandrayaan. The decent advance in its planned-trajectory Then, just 2km above the surface
communication with Lander was lost. Everyone stunned. At this moment, even the scientists prayed
for a miracle. After some time, the Chief formally announced to the world that ISRO had lost contact
with Vikram Lander.
The entire nation stood by ISRO, a vibe of optimism was still there and everyone was hopeful that
the contact maybe re-established. Efforts to contact Vikram began. On September 08, the orbiter
captured images of Vikram on the lunar surface. Meanwhile even NASA tried. NASA activated its
deep space network and began sending signals to Chandrayaan 2, but Vikram remained quiet. On
September 17, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter flew over Vikram, but couldn’t capture its
condition.

With days passing by, the chances of re-contact became worse. By September 21, the South pole
region of moon was enveloped in darkness, with temperatures hitting minus 200o C. The night will
last for 14 days, by the end which Vikram will never be able to re-contact as it doesn’t have heating
apparatus to survive lunar nights and all its components will be frozen. However, the clues about its
fate may still be forthcoming. The orbiter will attempt taking photos of Vikram’s landing site when
sunlight returns. As will NASA orbiter that is expected to perform another fly by on October 14.

Currently, ISRO is trying to figure out what exactly went wrong? According to the gathered data, the
lander turned upside down for a split second due to which its Reverse-thrust engines pointed
skywards and pushed the lander towards moon instead of slowing it down.

Science doesn’t know failures; its spirit lies in experiments. The mission Chandrayaan will still
continue its legacy of making advancements of human knowledge. The orbiter will be orbiting the
moon for next 7 years, Chandrayaan 1 made a breakthrough discovery by discovering iced water on
moon and now Chandrayaan 2 will attempt to estimate the amount of iced water.

The Chandrayaan journey gripped every Indian, from PM to scientists to the commoners. The nation
whole-heartedly appreciated ISRO’s efforts and were proud of Chandrayaan. The success we
achieved, almost 7 decades after independence is commendable. I am hopeful that one day
corruption will see an end, and India will be able to provide more monetary support to institutions
like ISRO, which exploits the true potential of Indians.