1st anniv of Chandrayaan-2 launch, all 8 payloads performing well: ISRO

Bengaluru, July 22

As India’s second lunar mission “Chandrayaan-2” marked one year of completion of launch by GSLV MkIII M1 on Wednesday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said all its eight payloads were performing well.

“The global mapping of the lunar surface and polar coverage are being carried out as per the mission plan, while public release of science data from Chandrayaan-2 for global use will begin in October,” the space agency said.

“Extensive data has been acquired from Chandrayaan-2 payloads and parameters are being derived for presence of water ice in the polar regions, X-ray based and infrared spectroscopic mineral information and mid and high latitude presence of Argon-40, a condensable gas on the Moon which gets released internally by radioactive decay of 40 K,” the ISRO said.

The report on the major findings from Chandrayaan-2 science experiments was planned to be released at the Annual Lunar Planetary Science Conference in March 2020, but was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it said.

“Public release of science data from Chandrayaan-2 for global use will begin in October 2020, wherein details for accessing the data will be provided,” it added. – PTI