Prof RV Raja Kumar - IIT Bhubaneswar is with ISRO in this Moment of Glory and Pain!
2.30 AM, 7th Sept 2019
It was a great momentous and anxious time, looking at the lander (Vikram) of Chandrayan-2 approaching the moon as close as by 2 km, though distress struck us amidst a great expectation, as it presumably deviated somewhat from the designated velocity profile and the command, control and telemetry links got snapped in the last couple of minutes, at around 2am today early hours.
But, the mission is almost achieved with the orbiter still orbiting around the moon at a distance of 3.56-4.07 lakh Km from earth and providing scientific data (carrying out experiments for one year in an orbit of 96 km x 125 km), the lander was transported successfully from Shar Center to 2.1 Km of distance from the moon at its south pole, the first object to reach this side of the moon, via earth’s atmosphere, earth’s orbit, transfer into moons orbit, disengaging from orbiter and descent onto moons orbit from a low lunar orbit. Also in a few days, vital lessons will be learnt from what was lost in the last few minutes of the mission, which are very essential to stage a great comeback. Therefore the mission is largely successful.
We from IIT Bhubaneswar congratulate our colleagues from ISRO and share their difficult moments!
I am sure, that ISRO will return with a higher level of determination, very soon for a thumping and resounding success. On the behalf of all of us, I would also like to assure ISRO of our assistance in whatever form it is needed, in this endeavor. I am confident that every one, particularly, the faculty members are ready and willing to contribute.
To students of IITBBS – “Look at the kind of Techno-Scientific national challenge it is, the aspirations of 1.3B people, its criticality, the quality and reliability challenges involved in it, and at what can happen in between despite putting in tremendous efforts. I am sure that, you will still be ready to take such big challenges and learn to address the difficulties faced in reaching the targets, which is certain to happen in a few successive iterations, if not in the first one”.
We eagerly look forward for ISRO to bounce back very soon for a thumping success not only on what is missed, but also with further enhancements in the mission.