New Delhi: India is waiting eagerly for the proud moment when Chandrayaan-2 will land on the moon’s surface past midnight tonight. The Lander Vikram will have a soft landing at 1.30 am and 2.30 am early tomorrow.
The ISRO said that after the soft landing the rover, Pragyan, will roll out between 5.30 am and 6.30 am. The rover will take chemical analysis of the soil and beam it up to the orbiter which will relay the information back to Earth.
Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft did its second de-orbiting on Wednesday morning, the last one before the soft landing tomorrow. The Vikram Lander is now at an orbit 35 km x 101 km.
Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, will be at the ISRO around Midnight to witness the most proud moment of Indian space odyssey. He will be accompanied by 60 high school students from across the country who won an online space quiz last month.
Once the Lander, named Vikram, touch downs on the lunar surface, India will become the fourth nation in the world to have achieved this distinguished achievement. Earlier, the US, Russia, and China have achieved this fete.
However, India will become the first country to land a rover on the South Polar region of the moon lying on the dark side of the natural satellite.
The rover Pragyan will probe for presence of water, early life of the solar system preserved on the surface of the moon and untouched by sunlight, and also minerals embedded in the lunar surface.
