Rupa
Ahead of Chandrayan-3 lander Vikram’s much-awaited soft landing on the lunar surface, believed to happen on August 23, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) has carried out a detailed assessment of lunar orbit traffic and situations around the moon.
The space agency released a document on August 9, which mentioned that Mars and the moon are the most explored regions and hence, more crowded among all planetary bodies at present.
ISRO said India’s Chandrayan-3 is going to be the latest entry into the moon’s orbit while adding that the next few years will see more intensified activities in space around the moon due to reignited interest in lunar exploration, heralded by Artemis missions to prepare for colonisations of Mars and return to the moon.
“While the previous missions were essentially aimed at scientific explorations, upcoming ventures will likely involve multiple actors of diverse interests, including those primarily driven by resource utilisation for commercial purposes. A better understanding of the environment is needed to formulate reasonable mitigation practices to avoid close-approach threats in planetary orbits,” ISRO said.
Current space situations around the moon
As of July 2023, six orbiters are active around the moon.
The space organization says ARTEMIS has re-purposed two of NASA’s THEMIS’ five-probe mission as ARTEMIS P1 and ARTEMIS P2. Both are currently active in an eccentric orbit of low inclination.
The assessment mentioned that NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) moves around the moon in a slightly elliptical and nearly polar orbit. ISRO’s second lunar mission, Chandrayan 2 and Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter or KPLO are also active in polar orbits of 100km altitude.
In addition, NASA’s Capstone works in a 9.2 resonant southern L2 NRHO, the perilune of which passes at 1500-1600 km altitude over the lunar North Pole whereas the apolume passes at a distance of about 70, 000 km over the South Pole.
The Japanese spacecraft Ouna, which was a part of 2009 Kaguya/SELENE mission and placed in lunar orbit, and Chandrayan-1 launched in 2008 are not active anymore, ISRO informed.
All other orbiters either have impacted/landed the lunar surface or have been shifted out of the moon-bound orbital regime, intentionally or due to failure in soft landing. For example, China launched Queqiao, their Chang’e 4 mission’s data relay satellite, and moved it to a halo orbit closer to the Earth-Moon I.2 point.
“Currently, the only operating rover is China’s Yutu-2 rover released by Chang’e 4, which operates on the far side. From the available media sources, it is expected that Luna-25 of Russia with a lander and rover will be in a lunar orbit of 100 km by August 16, 2023, and will be landing on the south pole of the moon by August 21-23, 2023,” ISRO added.
India’s Role and What Next
According to ISRO, India has been proactive in taking up several initiatives in collaborating with International Organizations like IADC (Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee), which include studies regarding the future evolution of space object environment in the lunar and cislunar regions to roll out specific and stringent guidelines and best practices for sustainable space operations in these most explored regions.
