Chandrayaan-2 cameras help Japan confirm accuracy of lunar landing

Isro scientists said Chandrayaan-2 orbiter has been providing crucial data from the Moon for nearly five years now

Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) , the moon lander of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), landed on the moon on January 20, and, the agency confirmed on Thursday that it did so approximately 55m east of the original target landing site, meeting its main mission of landing with an accuracy of 100m.

This image provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)/Takara Tomy/Sony Group Corporation/Doshisha University shows an image taken by a Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 (LEV-2) of a robotic moon rover called Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, on the moon. (JAXA/Takara Tomy/Sony Group Corporation/Doshisha University via AP)

It did so with help from India’s second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 , technically considered “failure”, but whose orbiter continues to guide vehicles from India and other countries.

“Lunar topography captured by the Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-2, overlaid with images acquired by the SLIM navigation camera during the HV2 (second hovering) at an altitude of about 50m,” JAXA said in a statement issued on Thursday.

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Isro scientists said that Chandrayaan-2 might not have achieved its final objective of landing on the Moon in 2019, but that its orbiter has been providing crucial data from the Moon for nearly five years now. It was also instrumental in shaping the success of its successor, Chandrayaan-3 last year.

“We analysed the images from Chandrayaan-2 orbiter to plan Chandrayaan-3 landing. This helped us not to repeat the same mistakes we made in the past. It will also continue to help us in planning future lunar missions,” said Isro chairman S Somanath told HT on Friday.

On September 2, 2019, the lander module of Chandrayaan-2 successfully detached itself from the orbiter, to commence the final journey before attempting to land on the lunar surface. However, days later, on September 7, the Vikram lander crashed on the Moon. While the mission did not achieve its intended end, equipment on-board the orbiter has since been providing crucial data from the Moon’s orbit since.

Chandrayaan-2 carried eight experiment payloads on board for studying surface geology, composition and exospheric measurements of Moon.