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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chandrayaan-2 | 5/6 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan-2 | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T12:59:52.302451+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Continuing mission === Despite the failed landing, the orbiter part of the mission, with eight scientific instruments, remains operational, and will continue its seven-year mission to study the Moon. Chandrayaan-2 orbiter performed a collision avoidance manoeuvre at 14:52 UTC on 18 October 2021 to avert possible conjunction with Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Both spacecraft were expected to come dangerously close to each other on 20 October 2021 at 05:45 UTC over the Lunar north pole. The Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter would later serve as a relay for Chandrayaan-3 which landed close to the crash site and accomplished the mission's goals. The orbiter also observed the Sun during a massive solar flare in May 2024 with the XSM and the CLASS instrument, in conjunction with XpoSAT and Aditya-L1. The CHACE-2 instrument also observed changes in the lunar exosphere during this time. It also performed another collision avoidance manoeuvre on 11 November 2024 to preclude another conjunction with LRO.The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter was reported to have performed 2 more CAMS, as well as sixteen orbit management manuvers to promote better imaging and scientific research by the end of 2025. The Orbiter releases over 48TB of research data every year.
== Discoveries and results == The orbiter, which is still active, regularly conducts experiments on Lunar Atmospheric composition, trace elements, and more.
The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter and the Mars Orbiter Mission orbiter conducted a joint series of Radio occultation measurements of each other's signals. This was used by mission scientists to analayse the lunar and solar wind plasma environments. Detection of sodium: In October 2023, the orbiter discovered an abundance of sodium on the Moon. The moon is shown to have a tail of Sodium atoms thousands of Kilometers long. Due to phenomena like photon stimulated desorption, solar wind sputtering, and meteorite impacts, sodium atoms gets knocked off the surface. Solar radiation pressure accelerates the sodium atoms away from the Sun, forming an elongated tail toward the antisolar direction. Using the large area X-raySpectrometer, CLASS, the probe has spotted and mapped sodium on the Moon. Hydroxyl and Water molecules: The Chandrayaan-1 probe had detected water on the Moon for the first time in early 2008. Upgraded instruments on the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter detected Water, as well as Hydroxyl ions on the Moon, August 2022. It distinguished between these two with the aid of IIRS (Imaging Infrared Spectrometer). Between 29 and 62 degrees north latitude, the probe detected the presence of these two molecules. Along with this, it also observed that the sunlit regions contain higher concentrations of these two. Distribution of Gas in Lunar Atmosphere: Chandra Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2, detected Argon-40 in Lunar exosphere. The distribution of Ar-40 has significant spatial heterogeneity. The NASA probe, LADEE, detected Argon near the Equatorial region, but Argon far from that, was detected for the first time. There are localised enhancements (termed as Argon bulge) over several regions including the KREEP (potassium (K), rare-earth elements, and phosphorus (P)) and South Pole Aitken terrain. Presence of Rare elements: Chandra's Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer (CLASS), detected magnesium, aluminium, silicon, calcium, titanium, iron etc. It also examined and detected minor elements – chromium and manganese, for the first time. The findings have paved the path for adding knowledge about the magmatic evolution of the Moon, its nebular conditions and much more. Solar X-ray Monitor (XSM), has witnessed a huge amount of microflares outside the active regions of the Sun for the first time. The DFSAR instrument studied the subsurface features of the Moon, detected signatures of the sub-surface water-ice, mapped lunar morphological features in the polar regions in high resolution. The TMC 2, which is conducting imaging of the Moon at a global scale, found interesting geologic signatures of lunar crustal shortening, and identification of volcanic domes. The OHRC, mapped Moon With a resolution of 25 cm at 100 km altitude. DFRS experiment, studied the ionosphere of the Moon, which is generated by the solar photo-ionisation of the neutral species of the lunar tenuous exosphere. The experiment showed that Moon's ionosphere has a plasma density of the order of 10^4 cm^3, in the wake region which is at least one order of magnitude more than that is present in the day side. An analysis of the S-band TTC radio signals from India's Chandrayaan-2 orbiter revealed that the Moon's ionosphere exhibits unexpectedly high electron densities (close to 100 times greater) when it enters the Earth's geomagnetic tail. Conducting the expirent by passing radio signals through the plasma layer of the moon,Scientists have proposed that the presence of remnant lunar crustal magnetic fields could be trapping plasma, preventing its diffusion, and leading to localized enhancements in electron density. The DFSAR intstument has created multiple detailed data-sets on L-band radar mapping of the lunar poles. A study by Gujarat University and ISRO combined archival data from the Mini-SAR instrument of Chandrayaan-1 and the DFSAR instrument to identify Subsurface water Ice in the Faustini crater. A study by scientists from PRL and IISER in 2026 postulated that water ice deposits in the Moon's south polar regions, where craters remain in almost constant darkness and temperatures plunge below 160°C are far more stable than previously believed, offering a major boost to future human exploration plans such as the planned Chandrayaan Human landing attempt and NASA's Artemis Program as this may have allowed water deposits to sit accumulated and undisturbed for prehaps billions of years. The study involved high-resolution orbital imagery and impact modelling from Chandrayaan-2 OHRC and Danuri's Shadowcam databases, with the research team mapping millions of tiny craters, ranging from one to 20 metres in size, across locations on the moon between 85° and 90° south latitude.The study found that small scale impact events were fairly uncommon in this region, with over 74% of permanently shadowed regions remaining largely undisturbed by such impacts.
== Scientists involved in the mission ==
Key scientists and engineers involved in the development of Chandrayaan-2 include: