The limitless infinite possibilities for Chandrayaan 2

Pic of lunar north hemisphere taken by Chandrayaan 2 camera, courtesy ISRO

It required humanity to wait for all of 4530 million years till Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan 1 discovered the presence of moisture (magmatic moisture) on lunar surface eleven years back in 2008 in a joint experiment between India and US. It was not discovered by US (later confirmed presence of moisture in lunar rocks brought by Apollo missions (??) in 2009) nor the Russians. 

After the separation of the orbiter and the lander, ISRO Headquarters in Bangalore and the ISTRAC (ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network) centre in Bangalore are working overtime these days to ensure a smooth and soft landing for the Chandrayaan 2 Lander Vikram on lunar surface in 70 deg S latitude on 7th September between 1.30 and 2.30 AM.

From where are we able to track the spacecrafts and do the correction to the speed, altitude, orientation etc by giving commands ? ISRO tracks all its space assets through the ISTRAC centre in Bangalore.  

What does ISTRAC in Bangalore do ?        (from www.isro.gov.in website)

The major objectives of the centre are:

• carrying out mission operations of all operational remote sensing and scientific satellites,
• providing Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TTC) services from launch vehicle lift-off till injection of satellite into orbit and
• to estimate its preliminary orbit in space and hardware

When Vikram lands near lunar South Pole at 70 deg South latitude, a feat never accomplished by any country ever in all of the history of the solar system and of humanity, one cannot discount the following events -

1. the possibility of identification of frozen ice and helium 3, the energy source for future, in the lunar craters which have never seen sunlight for 4530 million years

2. additionally throw light on the early history of the solar system and it's gradual evolution over 4500 million years ..

3. be ready to discover new chemical elements to expand the elemental periodic table

4. Race with Chinese Yutu 2 rover moving at a velocity of almost 2 metres a day to find additional deposits and characterise the blue gel-like substance on the lunar surface found for the first time by Yutu 2 ..

The scientific word is full of trepidation and excitement as to what those blue jelly globs on lunar surface are ? Is it a new form of life, a new state of matter, a new source of energy, a new source of organic or inorganic matter ??

With Yutu 2 for company on lunar surface, we have to wait and see what great secrets of the outer world and space would be revealed by Pragyaan in the coming few months ..

George