New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday released several pictures of the Moon's surface, captured by Chandrayaan-2's Terrain Mapping Camera-2, another milestone for India's space mission. The images of the lunar surface were captured at an altitude of about 4375 km showing impact craters on the surface such as Jackson, Mitra, Mach and Korolev.
Next major event is scheduled for September 2, when Vikam lander will be separated from the orbiter. The landing on Moon is expected on September 7.
India created history on July 22 when ISRO launched the country's second lunar mission. Chandrayaan-2 seeks to explore the far side of the Moon, a feat no other country has achieved yet. A landing on Moon will also make India only the fourth country - after the US, Russia and China - to achieve this feat. If this landing is successful, the 10-billion-rupee ($146-million) mission will allow scientists to carry out studies regarding the presence of water at the Moon's south pole.
( Lunar surface imaged by Terrain Mapping Camera 2 (TMC-2) on 23rd August 2019 at an altitude of ~4375 km showing impact craters such as Jackson, Mitra, Mach and Korolev.)
Taking to Twitter, ISRO said that the images were taken on August 23 by Chandrayaan-2's Terrain Mapping Camera 2 (TMC-@). The ISRo also said that images showed "craters such as Jackson, Mach, Korolev and Mitra (In the name of Prof. Sisir Kumar Mitra)."
#ISRO
Lunar surface imaged by Terrain Mapping Camera-2(TMC-2) of #Chandrayaan2 on August 23 at an altitude of about 4375 km showing craters such as Jackson, Mach, Korolev and Mitra (In the name of Prof. Sisir Kumar Mitra)For more images please visit https://t.co/ElNS4qIBvh pic.twitter.com/T31bFh102v
— ISRO (@isro) August 26, 2019
The second lunar bound orbit manoeuvre for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully on August 21, which began at 12:50 pm and took 1,228 seconds (approx 20 minutes) to complete. The orbit achieved is 118 km X 4,412 km distance, said ISRO. The next lunar bound orbit manoeuvre is scheduled on August 28 between 5:30 am to 6:30 am IST.
(Lunar surface imaged by Terrain Mapping Camera 2 (TMC-2) on 23rd August 2019 at an altitude of ~4375 km showing impact craters such as Sommerfeld and Kirkwood.)
On August 20, Chandrayaan-2 successfully entered the Moon’s orbit. The ISRO in a statement confirmed the Lunar Orbit Insertion of Chandrayaan-2 at 9.02 am that day.
A press release issued by the ISRO said, "Jackson is an impact crater located in the northern hemisphere of the far side of the Moon. It is a 71 km dia crater at 22.4°N and 163.1°W (shown in the inset). The interesting feature at the western outer rim of Mach crater is another impact crater, Mitra (92 km dia). It is named after Prof. Sisir Kumar Mitra, who was an Indian physicist and Padma Bhushan recipient known for his pioneering work in the field of ionosphere and Radiophysics. The Korolev crater seen in the image is a 437 km crater which has several small craters of varying sizes."
(Lunar north polar region imaged by Terrain Mapping Camera 2 (TMC-2) on 23rd August 2019 at an altitude of ~4375 km showing impact craters such as Plaskett (109km), Rozhdestvenskiy (177km) and Hermite (104 km ; one of the coldest spots in the solar system ~ 25 deg K.)
After the manoevre scheduled for August 28, ISRO will carry out two more orbit manoeuvres (August 30 and September 1) to enter it into its final orbit passing over lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the Moon's surface.
