Gravitational Slingshot Explained | Chandrayaan 2

July 28, 2020

Gravitational Slingshot Explained | Chandrayaan 2 | ISRO

If I tell you that space travel is almost possible without any fuel, would you believe? A travel between locations in the vacuum of space is being done without fuel not only because of cost but practical constraints for decades now. Gravity is being used to travel between destinations in the vastness of the space.

Even though, Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) prestigious mission indegniously built, "Chandrayaan 2", was a successful failure, becaee the probe was only a few meters away from actually soft landing on the surface of the moon before it crashed, it is imperative that how did it almost reach the surface of the moon?

Why does it take more than a month for Chandraayan 2 to complete it's 384,000 kms journey to the moon? Reportedly, Chandraayan2's lander would be soft landing on the moon by 6th or 7th September 2019. It is because, #ISRO will be adopting a fuel and cost efficient, tried tested and proven method so as to reach the moon - "Gravitational Slingshot". What is Gravitational Slingshot? As the name suggests, an object orbiting a planetary body acquires momentum and deflects from the planet's gravity at a certain calculated point. With the newly acquired momentum and positioning of the object in a mathematically calculated orbit, the object will be able to reach it's destination with almost no fuel. This method has been used by space agencies for decades, especially NASA's Voyager missions in sending Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 to orbit every planet of the solar system and eventually exit solar system itself. However, ISRO is yet to build a rocket powerful enough to put a spacecraft on it's direct path to moon and they would soon.