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 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 3

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 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: The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter has been operational since its launch in 2019.

Accepted Answer

True. Launched in July 2019, the orbiter continues to function well beyond its one-year design life, remaining in orbit and collecting scientific data.

Question 6

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 7

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.

Question 8

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

Accepted Answer

True. Chandrayaan-2's Imaging Infrared Spectrometer (IIRS) detected water ice in permanently shadowed craters at the lunar south pole, as published in a 2021 study.

Chandrayaan-2 Trivia Questions