The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully launched Chandrayaan 2, its second mission to the moon. A week after a technical snag halted the launch of the near Rs 1,000-crore mission, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (GSLV Mk 3) rocket lifted off from the Sriharikota space station at 2:43 pm Indian Standard Time.

The launch vehicle was carrying an orbiter and a lander which have been placed in the earth's orbit. Scientists at ISRO will gradually change the trajectory of the orbit and attempt to slingshot around the earth to place the Chandrayaan 2 in the moon's orbit; a journey that will take six weeks.

The orbiter, which has a mission life of one year, will continue to circle the moon and take images of the lunar surface, while a lander named Vikram which is carrying a 27 kilogramme moon rover will make the journey to the moon's surface. ISRO is expecting the touchdown on September 7. This will make India the first country to land on the moon's Southpole and only the fourth country ever to land on the moon's surface. The rover has a 14-day life during which it will travel up to half a kilometre from the lander and send data back to earth for analysis.

India Inc has also made significant contributions to Chandrayaan 2. Godrej and Boyce contributed to the mission with L110 engine and CE-20 engine for the launcher GSLV Mk 3. The company also worked on thrusters for the orbiter, the lander as well as components for the DSN antenna. Infra major L&T worked on S-200 motor casings for the launcher. It also manufactured honeycomb deck panels and reflector deployment mechanism for payload.

To discuss the successful launch of Chandrayaan 2, CNBC-TV18 spoke with VK Saraswat, Member of Niti Aayog, G Madhavan Nair, Former Chairman of ISRO, Rajeswari P Rajagopalan of ORF, Kaustubh Shukla COO, Industrial Products Group at Godrej & Boyce, JD Patil, Senior Executive VP, L&T and Amitabh Ghosh, scientist at Nasa.

Speaking about the technical glitch faced by ISRO a week ago, Saraswat said, "This is a momentous occasion. Hats off to the technical acumen of the ISRO scientists who have been able to solve the technical glitch in such a short time.”

“India’s journey towards moon started way back, but what we are doing in this mission is something unique in terms of sending a lander, a rover, and the number of payloads and trying to do analysis of everything from geology to mineralogy,” he added.

According to Nair, the uniqueness of this mission is going to be the soft landing the ISRO is going to try out. "We are going to be fourth country in line. The USA, Russia, and China have done it, and we are the next to do so. This will definitely boost our status in the field of space research and exploration,” he noted.

Ghosh pointed out that Chandrayaan 2 is a big boost for brand India. "Developing the capability to soft land on moon today is commendable. It can be mars three years from now. So it opens up a huge canvas of possibilities,” he opined.

Rajagopalan said the new mission would help substantiate the presence of water molecules on the South pole of the moon which would be a tremendous achievement.

First Published:Jul 22, 2019 10:19 PM IST