ISRO's Chandrayaan 2 captures stunning Sarabhai crater on Moon
New Delhi : Chandrayaan 2 has captured some stunning images of the moon and one of the craters has been named after the father of the Indian space programme – Vikram Sarabhai.
Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh said that as Sarabhai's birth centenary year completed on August 12, this is a thanksgiving tribute to the scientist.
He also mentioned that the latest achievements by ISRO were visionary dream of Sarabhai. The Department of Space directly comes under the Prime Minister's Office.
"The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has sought to pay tribute to him in a special way by announcing that Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter has captured the Moon images of 'Sarabhai Crater'," the statement quoting Singh said.
The Sarabhai Crater is around 250 to 300 kilometres east of the crater where the Apollo 17 and Luna 21 Missions had landed.
The statement said the Sarabhai Crater, captured in 3D images, shows that it has a depth of around 1.7 kilometres taken from its raised rim and the slope of crater walls is between 25 to 35 degrees. These findings will help space scientists understand further the process on the lunar region filled with lava.
"Chandrayaan-2 continues to perform as per design and provides valuable scientific data. The public release of scientific data from Chandrayaan-2 for global use will begin in October 2020," it added.
Chandrayaan 2 was launched on July 22 last year and was supposed to land on the South pole of the lunar planet on September 7; however, Vikram lander made a hard landing and only the orbitor is working as per plan.
