Hyderabad: More than a decade after Chandrayaan-1, India will start its second trip to the Moon from the Sriharikota spaceport at 2,51 a.m. on Monday. It is an attempt of the country in the international space to rub shoulders with giants like the United States, Russia and China.
The ISRO Chairman K Sivan, said the lander would make a soft landing in the lunar South Pole, an uncharted territory so far, on September 7. The actual achievements will come 52 days later, when it lands on the lunar surface. The Rs 1000-crore mission involves an orbiter around the Moon, a lander (Vikram) and a rover (Pragyan).
Its success will make India the fourth nation to land a probe on Moon. Most of Nasa landings were in the equatorial region, while China’s Chang’e 4 landed near south pole where India boldly goes now.
“The Earth and the Moon have a lot more in common than most of us realise. And studying these commonalities will help us understand our own planet better. We hope to do this with #Chandrayaan2!”, ISRO tweeted on Twitter.
The Earth and the Moon have a lot more in common than most of us realise. And studying these commonalities will help us understand our own planet better. We hope to do this with #Chandrayaan2! #ISRO #GSLVMkIII pic.twitter.com/vhXjultFbl
— ISRO (@isro) July 13, 2019
ISRO Former Chairman, AS Kiran Kumar said that the Chandrayaan-2 will help study the presence and distribution of water in a more concrete manner.
ISRO says, “Evidence for water molecules discovered by Chandrayaan-1, requires further studies on the extent of water molecule distribution on the surface, below the surface and in the tenuous lunar exosphere to address the origin of water on the moon.”
