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China Congratulates India on Chandrayaan-2 Launch, Offers To Collaborate in Space Exploration
24 July 2019
EIRNS—In today’s press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying offered congratulations to India on the successful launch of the Chandrayaan-2 lunar probe. “The exploration and utilization of outer-space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies,” she said, “is the common cause for mankind and should serve the common good of mankind. China has been committed to the peaceful use of outer-space and actively conducted relevant international communication and cooperation. We stand ready to work with India and other relevant parties to make contributions to the exploration of outer-space and bringing benefits to humankind.” RT and other media make the obvious point that were China and India to collaborate on space exploration or a mission to the Moon, it would provide an opportunity for both powers to repair their relations. The Hindu Business Line today quoted Wu Weiren, chief of China’s lunar exploration program, who also congratulated India on its launch success, and emphasized that while China is actively pursuing its own Moon mission, it is not in competition with any other nation planning their own space missions. China is paying close attention to other nations’ space endeavors, Wu stressed, but added that the “international trend will not play a decisive role in China’s planning on its lunar missions, and China is not going to compete with anyone on the matter.” Wu also indicated that Chinese scientists are conducting feasibility studies on sending astronauts to the Moon, which he said, “won’t be too much of a problem.” But he offered no details as for a timetable for such a mission. From: NASA-National Aeronautics and Space Administration NSSDCA ID: CHANDRYN2 Spacecraft and Subsystems The Chandrayaan 2 orbiter is a box-shaped craft with an orbital mass of 2379 kg and solar arrays capable of generating 1000 W power. The orbiter communicates with the Indian Deep Space Network and the lander. The orbiter will have a scientific payload comprising a visible terrain mapping camera, a neutral mass spectrometer, a synthetic aperture radar, a near infrared spectrometer, a radio occultation experiment, a soft X-ray spectrometer and solar X-ray monitor.
The lander, named Vikram, has a mass of 1471 kg (including the rover), and can generate 650 W of solar power. The lander can communicate directly to the Indian Deep Space Network, the orbiter, and the rover. The lander will carry a camera, seismometer, thermal profiler, Langmuir probe, and a NASA-supplied laser retroreflector. The rover, Pragyan (also Pragyaan), is a 6-wheeled vehicle with a mass of 27 kg that runs on 50 W of solar power and can travel up to 500 m at a speed of 1 cm per second. The rover communicates directly with the lander. the rover will hold cameras, alpha-proton X-ray spectrometer, and a laser-induced ablation spectroscopy experiment. Mission Profile Chandrayaan 2 is launched on 22 July 2019 at 9:13 UT (2:43 p.m. Indian Standard Time) from Satish Dhawan Space Center on Sriharikota Island on an ISRO Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark III. The lander-orbiter pair will go into an initial elliptical (170 x 40400 km altitude) Earth parking orbit, followed by a trans-lunar injection. The pair go into an initial elliptical lunar orbit on 5 or 6 August. After orbit insertion, the lander and orbiter separate. The orbiter evolves into a 100 km altitude circular polar orbit and the lander brakes from orbit and lands on the surface in the high latitude areas near the south pole, planned for 6 or 7 September. The orbiter portion of the mission is planned to last 1 year. The rover will be deployed using a ramp shortly after landing. The lander and rover portions of the mission are planned for 14-15 days, one period of lunar daylight. Spacecraft image credit ISRO |
