From India to the Moon

In March 2018, the launch of the Indian automatic station “Chandrayan-2” was scheduled. It will have to reach the moon, and its descent device will have to plant a lunar rover on the lunar surface, which will work there for about two weeks. Now the Indian space of space research (ISRO) is testing the landing module and the Lunopoline "Chandrayan-2". After about a month, the last stage of complex tests will begin, where all the components of Chandrayan-2 will be involved.

“Chandrayan-2” will be a continuation of the Chandrayan-1 project implemented in 2008-2009. Its name means "lunar ship." “Chandrayan-1”, finding himself in the near-moon orbit, sent a striking probe to the surface of the moon, who made a shekleton located next to the southern pole of the moon. The emissions of the lunar breeds during the fall of the probe were analyzed by devices installed on the orbital module. But success at this stage of the program was set off. In August 2009, when the orbital module “Chandrayan-1” worked only nine months from the planned two years, the connection with it was lost.

The processing of the data that Chandrayan-1 managed to collect is still ongoing. For example, only this summer, an international group of scientists, analyzing its information, found that there are volcanic rocks containing a fairly large amount of water on the surface of the moon (up to 0.05 % by mass).

Chandrayan-2 tasks are much more ambitious. The orbital module weighing about 1,400 kilograms will rotate around the moon at an altitude of 100 kilometers. Five scientific devices will be placed on it. Three of them are improved options for devices available on Chandrayan-1, two were designed specifically for this project. The spectrometer of soft x-ray radiation (Large Area Soft X-Ray Spectrometer, Class) is designed to study the distribution of chemical elements in the lunar surface. Imaging IR Spectrometer (IIRS) will also serve to search in the soil at the surface of the moon of various minerals and water molecules. A radar with digital synthesizing aperture (Synthetic Aperture Radar, SAR) will be able to obtain information about substances that lie on a depths to several In particular, its creators plan to provide additional evidence that in these layers of the lunar soil there is a water-based mass spectrometer of neutral particles (Neutral Mass Spectrometer, CHACE-2) is intended for the study of the lunar exosphere-an extremely distinct gas shell Mapping Camera-2, TMC-2) will have to take pictures for the preparation of a three-dimensional map of the lunar surface. Forced to abandon this.

A seismometer, a thermal probe, a Langmur probes, which is designed to study plasma at the lunar surface, as well as a device for a radio-sized measurement of the total amount of electrons, will be placed on the Chandrayan-2 module. Finally, a lunar rover weighing about 20 kilograms with power from solar panels. It will have six wheels, each of which will be associated with a separate electric motor. In total, ten engines will be involved for movement and control. Four out of six wheels will be independently controlled. The orientation of the lunar rover and overcoming the lunar relief will help to carry out a stereoscopic chamber and kinematic control of traction.

To make sure that the “Chandrayan-2” equipment can correctly orient the landing module and choose the desired point on the surface of the moon, a special site was created in the test center in Chalakiri, where the lunar relief with ten craters was reproduced. The Chandrayan-2 device learn to consider it from a flying aircraft.

The lunar rover will become a mobile chemical laboratory, which will on the spot analyze the soil samples and transmit the analysis of the orbital module. To do this, it will be installed on it with a laser-icon emission spectrometer. Its action is based on the irradiation of the sample with a laser impulse (“laser spark”) with the creation of plasma as a result of this flow: free molecules, atoms and ions. Then the device analyzes the spectrum of the resulting plasma, determining the content of chemical elements in the sample. The second device of the lunar rover is an alpha-separated X-ray spectrometer, also designed to determine the chemical composition of the lunar breeds. He irrades samples of alpha particles and considers their spectra in x-rays.

One of the priority tasks of Chandrayan-2 will be the study of the lunar exosphere. Although, it would seem, this shell of the moon looks frivolous: it is ten trillion times less dense than the earthly atmosphere - nevertheless, it can become an important factor that impedes further landing on the moon of astronauts and potential colonization by people. Since the gas shell of the moon is sparse, its surface is constantly subjected to the solar wind, which creates a layer of charged ions around the moon - a kind of plasma membrane. In it, dust particles “float”, rising from the surface of the moon, for example, as a result of constant drops of micrometeorites. This dust becomes an aggressive environment for any human products. It can damage the devices, buildings, spacesuits of astronauts. Therefore, information about the concentrations of this dust at different heights and how it moves is very important.

To launch Chandraian-2, a modified Indian launch vehicle GSLV MK.II will be used, which in the basic version is used to withdraw satellites into geostationary orbit. The start will occur in the Satisha Dhavan space center on the island of Sricharikot in Bengal Gulf.

The total cost of the project, including the launch vehicle and the launch of the cosmodrome, should amount to 6.03 billion rupees (93 million US dollars) according to ISRO calculations. This is not just a limited, but a super -econic budget. Nevertheless, ISRO employees believe in success that will make their country one of the leaders in the studies of the Moon.