India’s Chandrayaan 2 To Land Close To South Pole Of Moon Soon

The Chandrayaan 2 Moon mission will land on the lunar surface in less than an hour, as India looks to create history by becoming the first nation to reach closest to the Moon’s south pole. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Bengaluru along with nearly 70 school children to watch the historic landing live from the space agency’s control room.

The Moon lander Vikram that separated from its orbiting mothership has already performed two manoeuvres to lower its altitude for a perfect touchdown between 1:30 am and 2:30 am on Saturday.

The rover Pragyan will roll out from the Moon lander between 5:30 am and 6:30 am, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said. It will carry out research, including a thorough mapping of the Moon’s resources, looking for the presence of water and clicking high-resolution images as well.

The space agency’s Chairman K Sivan has called Chandrayaan 2 the “most complex mission ever undertaken by ISRO”. “We’re going to land at a place where no one else has gone before. We’re confident about the soft landing. We’re waiting for tonight,” Mr Sivan said.

The region where the lander Vikram is heading on the Moon is largely unexplored – most lunar landings have taken place in the northern hemisphere or in the equatorial region.

An older mission by China landed in the northernmost part, followed by Russia’s Luna missions. Most of the American lunar landings, including Apollo missions, were in the Moon’s equatorial region. China currently has a rover on the dark side of the Moon.

The success of the Chandrayaan 2 mission will make India the fourth country after the US, Russia and China to pull off a soft landing on the Moon.

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