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The India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in July is planning to launch a triple-threat mission to the Moon. The Chandrayaan-2 mission, will launch July 14 at 5:51 p.m. EDT (2151 GMT).
The Chandrayaan-2 mission will include an orbiter, a lander "Vikram" and a rover "Pragyan".
After launch, Chandrayaan-2 will spend about 16 days orbiting Earth, raising its orbit slowly over time before heading to the moon, the Times of India reported. It should take the mission about five days to reach the moon, after which Chandryaan-2 will spend 27 days in lunar orbit before releasing the Vikram lander.
If all goes well, Vikram will touch down near the moon's south pole on Sept. 6 in what promises to be a harrowing 15-minute landing sequence, ISRO officials have said.
"The 15-minute operation - in which Vikram makes the final descent and soft-lands - will be the most terrifying as we have never attempted such a complex mission," ISRO chairman K Sivan said in a June 11 press conference according to the Times of India.
The solar-powered Vikram is expected to deploy the small Pragyan rover about four hours after landing. Together, the lander and rover are designed to last about one lunar day (14 Earth days) on the moon's surface, while the Chandrayaan-2 orbtier[sic] continues its mission for a full year, according to an ISRO overview.
Similar to the ill-fated Beresheet lander, the Vikram lander is carrying
a NASA experiment called the Laser Retro-reflector Array for Lunar Landers, a mirror-like device designed to reflect laser signals that can be used to pinpoint the Vikram lander's location and measure the distance between the Earth and moon.
In all the Orbiter, Lander, and Rover carry 13 different scientific instruments between them to study the moon from orbit and the surface, 8 of which are on the orbiter and will continue functioning long after the lander and rover.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 16 2019, @09:36AM
What makes you think most Indians don't have access to healthcare or food or clean water? Oh right, the Indian population is skyrocketing NOT because they have better access to healthcare, food and clean water than they had under British Raj, but because they just fuck like sewer rats that they are. Isn't it? Indians trying to get into space - is there no place left for superior humans?