Spacewatch: India prepares to launch Chandrayaan lunar mission 2 | Science



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IIn India, the final preparations for the launch this Sunday of the lunar mission Chandrayaan 2. It will take two months to the spacecraft to go to the moon. After his arrival, he will move to a circular orbit just 100 km from the lunar surface. He will then deploy the Vikram Lander in early September.

This will be India's first attempt for a soft landing on the moon. If successful, the country will be the fourth to succeed, after Russia, the United States and China.

The chosen landing site is near the lunar south pole, where ice has been detected in some permanently shaded craters. Once secure, LG Vikram will launch a small six-wheeled vehicle named Pragyan.

The three components of the mission comprise a full range of scientific instruments. They will study in particular the mineral and chemical composition of the Moon, its topology and its seismology.

Chandrayaan 1, India's first lunar mission, was launched in October 2008 and has been running successfully for almost a year. As part of the mission, an impact probe touched the south pole of the Moon in a controlled manner.

Chandrayaan 2 will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on the southeast coast of India.

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