Gaganyaan mission is our next priority now, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chief K Sivan said on Saturday, adding that the Chandrayaan-2 mission has achieved 98% of its objectives but they are yet to establish any communication with lander Vikram.
On Gaganyaan, Sivan said in Bhubaneswar, "We are trying to set the target of achieving this mission by the next year. For this, we are working on different options. But first of all, we have to understand what really happened to the lander. This is our first priority now." Chandrayaan-2 was India'ssecond mission to the Moon. It was just 2.1 kilometers from scripting history when Vikram lander, carrying Pragyan rover, lost contact with the space agency.
Chandrayaan-2 comprised of three parts — the orbiter, Vikram lander and Pragyan rover. Since then, ISRO has been making continuous efforts to locate Vikram lander. Though the location of the lander was traced, communication with it couldn't be established. However, ISRO said that lander is intact.
"We could not have established any communication with the lander yet. Chandrayaan-2 had two important objectives — science and technology demonstration. We achieved total success in science objective while in the technology demonstration, the success percentage was almost full. That's why the project can be termed as 98% successful," Sivan added.
"At first, we have to understand that what happened with the lander, after that we will think what to do in further," the ISRO chief further stated. The orbiter's mission life is seven years, during which it will study the Moon's atmosphere and attempt to estimate the quantity of iced water on Moon. "Orbiter continues to perform scheduled science experiments to complete satisfaction. There are eight instruments in the orbiter and each instrument is doing exactly what it meant to do," Sivan said.
—(With inputs from Agencies)
