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India is about to make history on Friday by attempting to place a spacecraft on the moon. If the landing succeeds, India will become the fourth nation to land a landing craft on the moon and the first to land near the lunar south pole.
Only the United States, Russia and China landed on a satellite. An attempt by Israel in April failed.
The landing is scheduled from 16h. at 5 pm EDT on Friday (1:30 pm and 2:30 pm in India), according to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Prior to landing, the Vikram Lander was separated from its Chandrayaan – 2 orbiter, which was launched into space on July 22 and bypasses the moon since August 20.
The landing will be broadcast live by ISRO from 15:40. EDT.
The 3,200-pound LG is equipped with a six-wheeled rover named Pragyan, as well as a series of scientific instruments.
The plans provide for the Vikram Lander to land in a relatively flat plain between two craters. But as with all landings on other celestial bodies, it will be a delicate task because of the complex sequence of rocket fire required to bring a spacecraft slowly to the surface. At a press conference in August, ISRO President Kailasavadivoo Sivan described these sequences as "the most terrifying moments" of the mission.
Once on the lunar surface, the lander Vikram and his rover will perform seismic activity experiments – commonly known as "moon tremors" – and create detailed maps of the South Pole region which, with its northern counterpart, contains ice water deposits in perpetually shaded craters.
Scientists hope to better understand the origin of the deposits and whether they could be extracted to obtain water for future space missions, said Timothy Swindle, director of the Lunar and Global Laboratory at the University of California. Arizona to Tucson.
"We know there is water there, but we do not know much about it – how much there is, how it got there," said Swindle. "The more we can learn, the better, partly because if we want to explore the moon, it would be a very good resource for human exploration."
The water from the deposits could prove useful for lunar bases and could be divided into hydrogen and oxygen, which could be used as fuel for rockets during missions to Mars and other distant destinations.
The LG and rover are designed to operate on the moon for 14 days, roughly equivalent to a "lunar day". The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, which has its own ice deposit instrument, will continue to tour the Moon year.
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