Chandrayaan 2 had recently captured an image of a crater on Moon. ISRO released the image on August 12, naming the crater after Indian astrophysicist Vikram Sarabhai on the occasion his birth centenary.
Dr. Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai is regarded as the Father of Indian Space program, and the Founder of Physical Research Laboratory and a distinguished cosmic-ray and space scientist.
The image of Sarabhai Crater was captured by the Terrain Mapping Camera – 2 (TMC-2) onboard ISRO’s Chandrayaan – 2 on July 30, 2020.
Where is Sarabhai Crater located?
The Sarabhai Crater is located on Mare Serenitatis in the northeast quadrant of the Moon. Mare Serenitatis, which hosts the Sarabhai crater is one of the lunar mare region on the Moon. The region has vast lava plains creating a near flat surface. The Sarabhai Crater is around 250 to 300 kilometres east of the landing site of Apollo 17 and Luna 21 missions.
Sarabhai Crater: Key Details
• The average depth of the Sarabhai crater is calculated to be 1.7 km from the raised crater rim and the average slope of the crater walls is in the range 25-30°.
• This was calculated using the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and 3D view of the crater generated using the Fore, Nadir and Aft images from TMC-2.
• The outer region of the Sarabhai crater is dominated by numerous smaller craters of varying diameter distributed over the flat Mare plains.
• There is no large crater with a diameter above 10 km in its vicinity.
Significance |
| The Sarabhai crater with its raised rim, small hummocky floor and gradient inner walls is ideal to understand the impact processes on the lava-filled region of the Moon. |
The Minister of State in PMO, Jitendra Singh said that naming the crater after Vikram Sarabhai is a fitting tribute to his legacy, who completed his birth centenary year on August 12, 2020. Singh also hailed the recent achievements of ISRO that have placed India in a leading position in space research.
Background
The Chandrayaan-2 mission comprising a lunar orbiter, Vikram lander and Pragyan rover was launched on July 22, 2019. The main aim of the indigenously developed mission was to map and study the variations in lunar surface composition, as well as search for traces of water on Moon.
The Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover were scheduled to make a soft landing on the never-explored dark side of the Moon in the south polar region on September 6, 2019 and conduct scientific experiments for one lunar day, approximately two Earth weeks.
However, the ISRO ground station lost communication with the lander around 2 minutes before it was scheduled to make the soft landing on the lunar surface. According to the mission control centre, the lander’s descent was as planned and normal performance was observed up to an altitude of 2.1 km.
Though the lander was located by Chandrayaan 2 orbiter on September 19 but it failed to establish communication with the lander. The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter has been working as planned and has been continuously sending data of the Moon.
If the landing had been successful as planned, it would have made India the fourth nation in the world to land on the Moon after the Soviet Union, the United States and China. However, ISRO plans to re-attempt a landing by the second quarter of 2021 with Chandrayaan-3.
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