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reach the lunar orbit
Tuesday morning, Chandrayaan-2 finally captured the first image of Moon. The image, captured at an altitude of 2650 km from the lunar surface, was taken by a camera on board the Vikram Lander on Wednesday.
The Indian Space Research Organization (Isro) tweeted the image showing two important landmarks of the Moon, the Apollo crater and the Mare Oriental basin.
Apollo is a huge impact crater located in the southern hemisphere, on the other side of the moon. It is a plain (or bowl) with double-ringed walls whose inner ring is about half the diameter of the outer wall. Subsequent impacts eroded the outer wall and the interior, so that important parts of the outer and inner walls now consist of irregular sections and incised mountain arches. Sections of the interior of Apollo have been covered with lava, leaving soil plates with an albedo lower than the surroundings.
Mare Orientale, on the other hand, is a lunar mare. It is located on the western border on the near and far side of Moon. Images taken during previous Moon missions revealed that it was one of the most striking large-scale lunar features, resembling a target ring.
The three components of Chandrayaan-2, the orbiter and the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover, are equipped with high-intensity cameras. These cameras will send a lot of images of the Moon, which will highlight the places where ice, water and minerals are.
Wednesday, Isro had
successfully performed a critical maneuver
on Chandrayaan-2, which brought him closer to Moon's surface. There remain three maneuvers, which will place the lunar ship in the 100×100 circular orbit around Moon. Subsequently, Vikram Lander will separate from the orbiter on 2 September and, after four days, Vikram will land on Moon in the South Pole region at 7:55.
Isro's chief, K Sivan, told TOI by getting footage of the rover: "The Pragyan Rover will hit the surface of the moon four hours after Vikram's landing on 7 September at 1:55 am. Another hour and a half to the rover to send images of the moon and lunar data to Earth via the LG or the orbiter, the latter having no autonomous system.These images will then be calibrated and placed in the public domain and Space Administration (NASA) can also use this data. "
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