Sky & Telescope - November 2019 - 8

NEWS NOTES

SPACE

Chandrayaan 2 Heads to the Moon
ON JULY 22ND, INDIA'S ambitious

Chandrayaan 2 - an all-in-one mission
that includes an orbiter, lander, and
rover - lifted off for the Moon.
The spacecraft follows in the footsteps of the successful Chandrayaan 1
orbiter, which launched in October
2008 and orbited the Moon for nearly a
year. That mission deployed an impact
probe to the lunar south pole and found
direct evidence of water ice.
Chandrayaan 2 (Hindi for "mooncraft") is due to return to the south
pole, this time with a soft landing on

a plain between the Simpelius N and
Manzinus C craters. China's Chang'e 4
also landed in the south polar region
but on the farside.
As of early August, the Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO) reports
that the spacecraft has completed ﬁve
maneuvers to successively raise its orbit
around Earth. On August 14th, it left
orbit around our planet and headed for
the Moon. Lunar capture is expected
in late August. Chandrayaan 2 will
eventually attain an orbit that takes
it 100 kilometers (60 miles) above the

ASTRONOMY & SOCIETY

Protestors Block Thirty Meter Telescope Construction
ON JULY 10TH, HAWAIIAN Governor

David Ige and Thirty Meter Telescope
(TMT) ofﬁcials announced that construction of the $1.4 billion, 18-story
megatelescope would begin. Shortly
thereafter, roughly 1,000 Native Hawaiian activists blockaded the mountain's
access road, preventing the passage of
construction vehicles.
The protests have remained peaceful, even as 38 protestors, most of them
8

N OV E M B E R 2 019 * SK Y & TELESCOPE

Native Hawaiian elders, were arrested
on July 17th. However, due to safety
concerns for both vehicles and pedestrians along the only road that ascends
to the summit, the directors of the
existing Maunakea Observatories took
the unprecedented move of shuttering
the telescopes on July 16th. The ensuing
four-week suspension marked the longest period that all telescopes have been
simultaneously ofﬂine. Protests are

lunar surface. Using a high-resolution
camera, it will map the proposed
landing site and other speciﬁc areas of
interest. Other instruments aboard the
orbiter will characterize the composition, temperature, and other properties
of the lunar surface.
The Vikram (Sanskrit for "valor")
lander will detach from the orbiter and
head toward the lunar surface for a
September 7th landing. If all goes well,
engineers will instruct Vikram to deploy
a small rover named Pragyan (Sanskrit for "wisdom"). The solar-powered
lander and rover will arrive near lunar
sunrise. They're expected to last until
local sunset two weeks later, although
there are plans to try and wake them
both up after the long lunar night. The
primary mission of the orbiter should
last one year.
The mission will study water ice near
the lunar south pole. Vikram carries
a seismometer, thermal probe, and an
instrument to monitor electron density
and temperature near the lunar surface.
The lander also carries a small laser
retro-reﬂector, supplied by NASA. The
Pragyan rover includes a laser and X-ray
spectrometer to analyze lunar regolith,
along with navigational cameras.
If all goes well, Chandrayaan 2 will
make India the fourth nation to land
softly on the Moon.
■ DAVID DICKINSON

CH A NDR AYA A N 2: ISRO; PROTESTORS: H AWAII NE WS NOW

t An artist's conception shows the Vikram
lander deploying the Pragyan rover on the
surface of the Moon.
Sky & Telescope - November 2019

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