Chandrayaan-2 completes a year around Moon, adequate fuel for 7 more years: ISRO
Bengaluru: India's second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 completed one year in orbit around the moon on Thursday and all instruments are currently performing well and there is adequate onboard fuel to keep it operational for about seven more years, space agency ISRO said.
Chandrayaan-2 was launched on July 22, 2019, and inserted into the lunar orbit on August 20, exactly one year ago.
"Though the soft-landing attempt (of the lander carrying the rover) was not successful, the orbiter, which was equipped with eight scientific instruments, was successfully placed in the lunar orbit. The orbiter completed more than 4,400 orbits around the Moon and all the instruments are currently performing well," the Indian Space Research Organisation said.
The agency in a statement said the spacecraft was healthy and the performance of subsystems normal.
"The orbiter is being maintained in 100 +/- 25 km polar orbit with periodic orbit maintenance (OM) maneuvers. So far, 17 OMs are carried out since achieving 100 km lunar orbit on 24th September 2019. There is adequate onboard fuel to remain operational for about seven years," it added.
Chandrayaan-2 mission was India's first attempt to make a soft landing of a rover on the unchartered South Pole of the lunar surface.
However, the lander Vikram hard-landed in September last year. The scientific payloads, including high resolution camera, onboard the orbiter for mapping the lunar surface and study the exosphere (outer atmosphere) of the Moon.
The city-headquartered ISRO said raw data from the payloads have been downloaded at the Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC) during the year.
Public data release was planned by end of this year, after validation by a formal peer review, it said adding the first-year observations from Chandrayaan-2 demonstrate the in-orbit performance of payloads, strongly indicating its ability to contribute significantly to lunar science.
"The anticipated long life of this orbiter can contribute much to the current resurgence of interest among the global scientific community for a sustained presence on the Moon," the space agency said.
Chandrayaan-2 was launched to further expand the knowledge about the moon through a detailed study of its topography, mineralogy, surface chemical composition, thermophysical characteristics and atmosphere, leading to a better understanding of the origin and evolution of the moon.
India's first mission to the Moon Chandrayaan-1, launched in 2008, had given clear evidence on the extensive presence of surface water and the indication for subsurface polar water-ice deposits.
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Meghalaya: Interstate ATM theft racket busted, 6 arrested
Shillong (PTI): An interstate racket involved in ATM thefts across several states has been busted, with the arrest of six persons in connection with a break-in at an electronic banking outlet in Meghalaya's Ri-Bhoi district, police said on Wednesday.
The accused were allegedly involved in breaking into an ATM of the Meghalaya Cooperative Apex Bank on April 5, 2024, they said.
Three of the accused were arrested from Barpeta in Assam, while the remaining were apprehended from Haryana, police said.
Ri-Bhoi SP Giri Prasad M said a special police team was constituted to investigate the case.
"With coordinated efforts and assistance from Assam and Haryana Police, we were able to apprehend the accused involved in the ATM break-in," he told PTI.
The case was registered at Umiam police station under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
According to police, the gang used gas cutters to break open the ATM safe and fled with the cash within minutes.
"The group is part of a larger network involved in similar ATM thefts across different states. Further investigation is underway to dismantle the entire network," the SP added.
