India ready for mission to the Moon on July 9, 2019

The second Indian mission to the Moon is all set to be witnessed in July this year. ISRO is readying its Chandrayaan 2 in July 2019, which was earlier planned for April. The Indian space organisation has confirmed that all the modules required for the lunar landing will be in place in the next two months.

“All the modules are getting ready for the Chandrayaan-2 launch during the window of July 9 to July 16. The expected moon landing on September 6," said the space agency in a statement on Wednesday, reported the local media.

The space mission will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

The Indian mission to the Moon would see a landing by the space shuttle in the southern pole since it is the part of the lunar surface that has not been explored by any other country as yet. The landing zone will also give ISRO an opportunity to name the area or site, putting India into the history of space exploration.

“We are ready for one of the most exciting missions, #Chandrayaan2. Launch window between July 9-16 & likely Moon-landing on Sept 6, 2019. #GSLVMKIII will carry 3 modules of this #lunarmission - Orbiter, Lander (Vikram), Rover (Pragyan),” said the twitter post from ISRO on May 1.

The launch that wsa supposed to be witnessed in April was postponed for further testing and reconfiguration of the lander. ISRO confirmed that the mission would have three modules, all built and developed in India, and will be named Orbiter, Vikram (the lander) and Pragyan (the rover).

The Orbiter and Lander will be stacked inside the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle MK-III launch vehicle. After launch, the modules will orbit Earth and then the respective modules will reach the lunar orbit using the orbiter propulsion module. The lander will then separate itself from the orbiter to soft land at a pre-determined spot that will be closer to the south pole of the lunar surface. The Lander is destined to touch down on September 6, 2019.

Once landed, the rover will then take charge and carry out scientific experiments on the Moon’s surface itself. The rover, lander and orbiter will also be carrying out scientific experiments and all the data will be relayed back to the Earth station. The rover will roll out onto the lunar surface and journey for around 300 to 400 metres and spend around 14 days on the Moon carrying out necessary experiments. The data will be sent to Earth within 15 minutes of each test.

If India’s mission is successful, it would put India as the fourth country in the world after US, Russia and China to successfully land a craft on the Moon. Israel’s attempt for the same failed in April this year. China’s spacecraft was the only one to land on the other side of the Moon that has never seen the face of the Earth, ever.

The last mission from ISRO was the Chandrayaan 1 which was an orbiting satellite only, made more than 3,400 trips around the Moon and sent back hundreds of photographs of the Moon’s surface. The 2008 Chandrayaan 1 mission finally broke down after ISRO lost communication with the orbiting satellite in August 2009, which was half the period of the two-year mission. However, the mission that lasted 312 days had successfully completed 95% of it’s planned objectives.