Isro celebrates Vikram Sarabhai’s birth centenary with images of `Sarabhai Crater’ on Moon
17 Aug 2020
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The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has sought to pay tribute to Vikram Sarabhai, the Father of India's Space Programme, on his birth centenary by announcing that Chandrayaan 2 Orbiter has captured the images of “Sarabhai Crater” on Moon.
Vikram Sarabhai’s birth centenary was on 12 August 2020 and the announcement of the discovery is a thanksgiving tribute to him, said Jitendra Singh union minister of state for development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, personnel, public grievances, pensions, atomic energy and space.
Singh said the achievements of Isro, which have placed India as a frontline nation in space exploration, is a vindication of Sarabhai’s visionary dream.
The crater named after Vikram Sarabhai is around 250 to 300 kilometres east of the crater where the Apollo 17 and Luna 21 missions had landed.
He said Isro has made rich contributions and brought glory in India’s eventful space journey which was valiantly initiated by Sarabhai and his team, despite several odds and constraints over six decades ago. Today, he said, inputs provided by India’s space missions are being utilised even by those nations that had started their space journey much earlier.
As per Isro sources, the Sarabhai Crater captured in 3D images shows that the crater has a depth of around 1.7 km taken from its raised rim and the slope of Crater walls is in between 25 to 35 degree. These findings will help space scientists to understand further the process on the lunar region filled with lava.
Further, Isro said that Chandrayaan-2 continues to perform as per the design, providing valuable scientific data. The public release of scientific data from Chandrayaan-2 for global use will begin in October 2020, it added.
