NEW DELHI: A senior Indian space scientist on Thursday said that the orbiter of the Chandrayaan-2 mission, which was said to be a failed mission after its lander crashlanded on the south pole region of Moon, is still alive and is helping in planning and executing subsequent Indian lunar missions.During the AEDEX conference at Yashobhoomi here on Thursday, Anil Bhardwaj, director of Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) under the Department of Space, said, “It was the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter that provided crucial information to Isro about where to land the Chandrayaan-3 lander.”Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, which was launched in 2019, is currently operating from the Moon’s orbit. “It has the highest resolution among all the assets in the world operating on the Moon. It is now being used for future missions,” Bhardwaj said.Chandrayaan-2 orbiter carried eight scientific payloads designed to study the lunar surface, minerals, and exosphere. The orbiter is equipped with the Orbiter High Resolution Camera (OHRC), which features a spatial resolution of about 0.25 meters (25 cm) to 0.32 meters per pixel from a 100-kilometer lunar orbit.“For Chandrayaan-4, we have built sensors that will help in landing and bringing back lunar samples back to Earth,” the PRL director said.“Chandrayaan-5 will be a joint mission with Japan agency JAXA, where the lander will try to land in the permanently-shadowed region of the Moon. This region is near the south pole of the Moon and it never sees the sunlight. This will be a very challenging mission. The rover will go inside the permanently-shadowed region and explore for the first time the area. There again we are trying to put up very unique sensors to provide us information about the distribution of water.

So sensor development is happening at a speedy level.”“India is also working on hi-tech sensors for in-situ (natural place) experiments,” Bhardwaj said. He also said the work is on in developing a heating system so that the lander can survive freezing temperatures during the 14 Earth nights (one lunar night is equal to 14 Earth days).