The Chandrayaan-2 mission leaves the Earth successfully.

The Chandrayaan-2 mission has had a promising start and India has the opportunity to become the fourth country to land on the moon.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched its GSLV Mk-III rocket on Monday, July 22 at 2:43 pm local time at the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, an island off the coast of Andhra Pradesh. The rocket managed to dump its cargo – the 3,840-kilogram Chandrayaan-2 ship – into terrestrial orbit shortly thereafter. ISRO says the ship is "in good health" and is heading in the "right direction," as the Times of India says.

The launch of the rocket was originally scheduled for July 15, but ISRO had to cancel the launch Due to technical problems. The launch's success was met with intense relief, after the idea of ​​suspending the launch was weighed down due to the inconvenience and the short launch window.

Over the next few days, the mission will use the on-board propulsion system onboard the Chandrayaan-2 for a series of orbital adjustments. The probe does not follow the most direct path to the moon. Instead, a series of orbits on Earth will be wider and wider until it is far enough to be trapped by the gravity of the moon. This process will take 48 days, after which the ship will be close enough to the Moon to send the Vikram probe to the lunar surface.

The Vikram probe, named in honor of Vikram Sarabhai, pioneer of the Indian space program, will attempt a soft landing on September 7, 2019. The probe will descend to the lunar surface at a speed of 2 meters per second. and will land at plain lying between two craters (Manzinus C and Simpelius N) in the region of the South Pole of the Moon, according to ISRO.

If it succeeds, India will become the fourth country in the world to land on the moon using a spacecraft. The others are the United States, the Soviet Union and China. Earlier this year, the Israeli probe Beresheet Probe crashed on the Moon, losing the opportunity to register on this list. The Chandrayaan-2 mission will be the first to explore the region of the South Pole of the Moon.

This is the second time that India sends a spaceship to the moon. In 2008, ISRO launched the Chandrayaan-1, which put the satellite into orbit and subsequently accidentally crashed on the moon.

Once on the lunar surface, the Chandrayaan-2 mission should last a lunar day, about 14 Earth days. The Vikram probe will deploy Pragyan, a six-wheeled robotic vehicle (Pragyan means "wisdom" in Sanskrit). This rover will travel a maximum of 500 meters from the landing site, at a speed of 1 centimeter per second. Neither Vikram nor Pragyan are equipped to survive the lunar night, where temperatures can drop to -170 degrees.

During the 14 Earth days in which Pragyan will be active, the explorer will use his embedded X – ray particle spectrometer and laser spectroscope to study the chemical composition of the lunar surface near the landing site. Meanwhile, Vikram 's landing module will attempt to detect earthquakes on the Moon, measure the satellite' s thermal conductivity (the degree to which the lunar surface can conduct electricity), and detect the earthquake. to study the lunar ionosphere (the zone ionized by the satellite). cosmic and solar radiation). Vikram will be able to communicate with Pragyan, the Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter and with the mission leaders on Earth.

The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter will be in lunar orbit for about a year and will observe its surface at a height of about 100 kilometers. The orbiter is equipped with a series of instruments allowing the topographic exploration of the lunar surface, the measurement of the chemical composition of the Moon and the study of lunar minerals and ( possibly) water. The orbiter will also study the Sun with an X-ray monitor. Fortunately, it is also equipped with a high resolution camera, which allows us to see great pictures of the South Pole of the Moon. In total, the Chandrayaan-2 mission includes up to 13 different items, developed internally by ISRO.

In fact, this has a lot of merit for India. The country is striving to become a full space power and is showing the world that it can do more than launch satellites into space.

In March of this year, India deliberately shot down one of its own satellites to show its growing influence in space. For the future, a third Chandrayaan mission is planned for 2023 or 2024 (possibly jointly with JAXA, the Japanese space agency). They even plan to send astronauts into space in 2022 and send a probe to Venus in 2023.

But for the moment, these are projects for the future. For the moment, India still needs the Vikram probe to land properly on the lunar surface, a feat planned on Sept. 7. As Israel discovered earlier this year, we can take nothing for granted. The space is a difficult place.