India’s ambitious space mission ‘Chandrayaan-2’ to land a rover on Moon, is scheduled to launch between July 9 and July 16 this year, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) said Wednesday. The space agency is hoping to land the rover on Moon on September 6 this year.
The Chandrayaan-2 mission will see the GSLV Mk III carry three modules into space — an orbiter, a lander and a rover. The lander has been named Vikram while the rover is called Pragyan. Rover Pragyan will be housed inside lander Vikram and will be deployed after Vikram lands on lunar surface.
The orbiter, like the name suggests, will orbit the moon for the duration of the mission. The lander will perform a soft landing at a site close to the lunar South Pole.
The six-wheeled Pragyan will then be deployed on the lunar surface to carry out experiments. Pragyan will be controlled by Isro controllers on Earth.
This is the second time in ten years India will launch a mission to the Moon’s surface. In 2009, Isro launched Chandrayaan-1. That mission, however, did not include a rover. Chandrayaan-1 included an orbiter and an ‘impactor’ that crashed into the Moon’s surface near the South Pole.
Findings from the Chandrayaan-1 mission helped the US-based National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) confirm the presence of water on Moon.
The Chandrayaan-1 mission also laid the groundwork for sending a rover to Moon, i.e. Chandrayaan-2.
Chandrayaan-2 is among India’s most ambitious space missions. The other mission is Gaganyaan, India’s first manned space mission.
Under Gaganyaan, Isro hopes to send three Indians to space on an Indian spacecraft. Apart from Rakesh Sharma, no Indian national has been to space; he, however, went to space on a Russian spacecraft.
Coming back to Chandrayaan-2, the mission will analyse lunar soil. The rover Pragyan will collect samples and perform experiments, sending its findings to the orbiter. The orbiter will use this data and its own findings to carry out analysis of lunar soil.
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