India flies to the moon

The launch of the Indian lunar mission "Chandrayan-2", postponed many times, has finally come true. The journey will take almost two months. Landing is planned near the south pole of the moon, on a plateau between two craters: Mansinus C and Simpelius C, at about 70 ° south latitude. The 2018 launch was delayed several months to allow for additional testing. After the next revision, the losses were carried forward to the beginning of the current year. Damage to the lander's legs delayed it further. On July 14, due to a technical problem, the countdown stopped 56 minutes before takeoff. After overcoming all the technical problems, a week later the Chandrayaan-2 took off.

The plan is that by orbiting the invisible side of the moon, it will exit the research deck, all without communication with the earth's command center. After a successful landing, the instruments on board the rover, incl. spectrometers, seismometer, plasma measurement equipment, will begin to collect and analyze data. On board the orbiter there is equipment for mapping water resources.

If the mission is successful, Chandrayaan-2 will pave the way for even more ambitious Indian missions. There are plans to land as well as send probes to Venus, said Kailasawadiva Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

Chandrayaan-2 aims to show that India has technologically mastered the ability to "soft-land on alien celestial bodies". Until now, landings have only been made around the lunar equator, which makes the current mission particularly challenging.

source: www.sciencemag.org