Here's how Chandrayaan-2 orbitor will reveal more about moon's evolution using its 8 state-of-art instruments

Explaining further on Chandrayaan-2 mission, Principal Secretary said it's a very "complex", and a significant technological leap from previous missions of ISRO.

"This brought together an Orbiter, Lander and Rover to explore the unexplored south polar region of the moon. This unique mission, aimed at studying not just one area of the moon but also its exosphere, the surface and sub-surface in a single mission," he said.

The Orbiter has already been placed in its intended orbit around the moon and shall enrich our understanding of the moon's evolution, map minerals, water molecules in the polar regions, using its eight state-of-the-art scientific instruments, Raghavan said.

He said since the launch of Chandrayaan-2 on July 22, India and the world watched its progress from one phase to the next with great expectation and excitement.

"The precise launch and mission management has ensured a long life of almost seven years instead of the planned one year," he said sharing a list of cutting-edge science that will come from the Orbiter.

"The Orbiter camera is the highest resolution camera (0.3m) in any lunar mission so far and has already started providing high-resolution images which will be immensely useful to the global scientific community," he said.

Raghavan said the pictures he saw on Saturday morning were "extraordinary" because Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) 2 was a miniature version of the TMC used onboard the Chandrayaan-1 mission.

Principal Scientific Adviser to the government of India, K Vijay Raghavan said, "The pictures I saw this morning were truly extraordinary. TMC 2 is a miniature version of the Terrain Mapping Camera used onboard the Chandrayaan 1 mission.

TMcv2’s primary objective is mapping the lunar surface in the panchromatic spectral band (0.5-0.8 microns), high spatial resolution(5m), swathe(20 km from 100 km lunar polar orbit). Data will give clues about the Moon's evolution, prepare 3D maps of the lunar surface.

CLASS measures X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectra to detect elements such as Magnesium, Aluminium, Silicon, Calcium, Titanium, Iron, and Sodium. The XRF technique will detect these elements by measuring the characteristic X-rays they emit when excited by the Sun's rays.

XSM observes the X-rays emitted by the Sun and its corona, measures the intensity of solar radiation in these rays, and supports CLASS. Provides solar X-ray spectrum in the energy range of 1-15 ke.

XSM will provide high-energy resolution and high-cadence measurements (full spectrum every second) of solar X-ray spectra as input for analysis of data from CLASS.

Imaging Infra-red spectrometer (IIRS) has two primary objectives: i.  global mineralogical and volatile mapping of the Moon in the spectral range of ~0.8-5.0 µm for the first time, at the high resolution of ~20 nm.

IIRS second objective: Complete characterization of water/hydroxyl feature near 3.0 µm for the first time at high spatial (~80 m) and spectral (~20 nm) resolutions.

Principal Scientific Adviser to the government of India, K Vijay Raghavan said, "After a moment of despondency, ISRO team is back to work!! It is inspirational to see this characteristic of science in collective action. Kudos to it."

He said ISRO project review teams have made presentations to mission management, chaired by Dr K Sivan right from the early hours of the day and are already addressing causes and learning from the events.

He said the Vikram Lander followed the planned descent trajectory from its orbit of 35 kilometres to just below 2 kilometres above the surface.

"All systems and sensors of the Lander functioned excellently until this point. Tested and proved many new technologies such as the variable thrust propulsion technology used in the Lander," he said.