New Delhi: India’s second moon mission Chandrayaan-2 left the earth’s orbit early this morning and is moving towards the moon following the successful completion of a crucial manoeuvre by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The ISRO successfully conducted the ‘trans lunar injection (TLI) manoeuvre at 2:21 AM, following which the spacecraft successfully entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory.
Chandrayaan-2 is expected to reach the moon’s orbit on August 20 and land on lunar surface on September 7.
“Chandrayaan-2 will take six days to travel in the lunar trajectory to reach Moon (lunar orbit) on August 20”, ISRO Chairman K Sivan said. The total distance from Earth to Moon is 3.84 lakh kilometre.
After 13 days of Moon-bound orbit phase, the lander ‘Vikram’ carrying rover ‘Pragyan’ will separate and after another few days of orbiting will soft land on September 7 in the South Pole region of the Moon, where no country has gone so far.
If successful, the mission will make India the fourth country after Russia, the US and China to pull off a soft landing on the Moon.
Chandrayaan-2 is loaded with 13 desi payloads that will do a detailed study of topography, seismography, mineral identification and distribution, surface chemical composition, thermo-physical characteristics of top soil and composition of the tenuous lunar atmosphere for a new understanding of the origin and evolution of Moon.
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Ms Kalinga