Question 1

True or false: Chandrayaan-2 was India's first mission to attempt a soft landing on the Moon.

Accepted Answer

True. It was India's first soft landing attempt. Chandrayaan-1 only orbited and impacted a probe. Sadly, Vikram crashed.

Question 2

True or false: Chandrayaan-2's launch vehicle was the GSLV Mk III, India's most powerful rocket at the time.

Accepted Answer

True. Correct. The GSLV Mk III (now LVM3) successfully lifted Chandrayaan-2 into orbit on July 22, 2019.

Question 3

True or false: Chandrayaan-2's crash site was later imaged by an American lunar orbiter.

Accepted Answer

True. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter found the Vikram lander's debris field in September 2019, confirming the hard landing.

Question 4

True or false: Chandrayaan-2 carried a rover named 'Pragyan' that successfully drove on the Moon.

Accepted Answer

False. Pragyan was inside Vikram, which crash-landed. The rover never deployed or moved on the lunar surface.

Question 5

True or false: Chandrayaan-2's lander 'Vikram' carried a small NASA retroreflector for laser ranging.

Accepted Answer

True. Yes, NASA's Laser Retroreflector Array was mounted on Vikram to help measure lunar distance, though the lander crashed.

Question 6

True or false: The orbiter from Chandrayaan-2 is expected to operate for over seven years.

Accepted Answer

True. Originally designed for one year, its precise fuel management extended its life to about seven years before deorbiting.

Question 7

True or false: The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter detected water ice in permanently shadowed craters at the south pole.

Accepted Answer

False. While the orbiter carries instruments to detect water, the definitive discovery of water ice at the south pole was made earlier by Chandrayaan-1.

Question 8

True or false: Chandrayaan-2's orbiter carried a radar that could see through 10 meters of lunar soil.

Accepted Answer

False. The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) can penetrate up to a few meters, not 10. It maps subsurface features but with limited depth.

Chandrayaan-2 Trivia Questions