India has conceived and realised several cutting-edge indigenous systems in the areas of navigation, guidance, control, on-board autonomy, precision sensors, throttable liquid engines, intricate communication links, et al for the project.
CHENNAI: Nearly 11 years after the project was cleared by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chandrayaan-2, India’s second lunar mission, is ready for launch. The GSLV-Mk III will lift off with the spacecraft at 2.51am on Monday, putting India closer to its maiden Moon landing.
All preparations are complete and Chandrayaan-2 is sitting inside the launch vehicle at the second launchpad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota, about 100km north of Chennai. The 20-hour countdown for the launch began at 6.51am Sunday as per the schedule.
India’s second Moon mission, Chandrayaan-2 - onboard the GSLV Mk-III, began at 6.51 am on Sunday. With 5 hours more for the countdown of the launch, this is India's most powerful rocket to date. The launch is scheduled at 2.51 am on Monday from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
Union minister Dr Jitendra Singh who is also involved with the space department tweeted: “Countdown begins for the historic day! India now stands as a frontline nation in the world of Space. A glorious leap forward for India's space scientists. Keep it up Team #ISRO.”
ISRO aims at landing on the moon for the first time with Chandraayan-2. The spacecraft will carry an orbiter, a lander named Vikram, which will soft land on the unexplored south pole of the Moon, and a rover named Pragyan, which will move around on the lunar surface for 14 earth days.
A total of 14 payloads onboard its orbiter, lander and rover will be carried by the 3.8 tonne spacecraft. The ISRO aims to gain more information on the existence of water molecules and the evolution of the Earth and the Moon.
Chandrayaan-2 will take 54 days to travel and will land on the Moon in September after the launch on Monday. India will be the fourth country to do so if the spacecraft makes a successful soft landing in the moon
Isro chairman K Sivan has said that the mission is only the beginning and that the agency will follow this up by eventually sending a human to Moon. That, of course, will be an extension of another big-ticket project — Gaganyaan, which aims to send astronauts to space as early as 2022.
India has conceived and realised several cutting-edge indigenous systems in the areas of navigation, guidance, control, on-board autonomy, precision sensors, throttable liquid engines, intricate communication links, et al for the project.
“... I remember when I was nine or ten years old, when I was reading about the exploits of Nasa in the US, it was very exciting. I even dreamt of working in Nasa, but it did not happen. But the excitement of what Nasa was doing motivated me to take up a career in science and engineering. I would like to wish Isro the very best for the Chandrayaan mission from me and IISc,” IISc director Prof Anurag Kumar said.
Watch the livestream on twitter @isro or at www.isro.gov.in
