On Tuesday, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully completed the de-orbiting of the Chandrayaan 2 around the moon. It will now land on the South Polar region of the moon. During the de-orbital process lander ‘Vikram’ was separated from the orbiter. The orbit of the Vikram lander was 104 KM X 128 KM. As per ISRO, first de-orbiting started at 8:50 am at its chosen time and the second was to happen between 3:30 am – 4:30 am. The operation was carried out successfully with the use of the onboard propulsion system for 4 seconds. India will set a record by becoming the first nation to land on the Moon’s South Pole.
The Vikram lander got separated from the Chandrayaan 2 on Monday and is scheduled to land close to the south pole in its first attempt on September 7 between 1:40 am and 1:55 am.
Indian Space Research Organisation said, “With this manoeuvre, the required orbit for the Vikram Lander to commence its descent towards the surface of the Moon is achieved,”
The final nine-second de-orbiting of the Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft was carried out successfully. The second de-orbiting manoeuvre for Chandryaan spacecraft was performed successfully today (September 04, 2019) beginning at 03.42 hrs IST.
“The first de-orbiting maneuver was carried 19 hours earlier – a day after the lander Vikram’ was separated from the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter. The orbit of Vikram Lander is 35 km x 101 km. Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter continues to orbit the Moon in an orbit of 96 km x 125 km and both the Orbiter and Lander are healthy.”
ISRO also stated that Vikram Lander is scheduled to power descent between 0100 – 0200 hrs IST on September 07, 2019, which is then followed by touch down of Lander between 0130 – 0230 hrs IST.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s presence is expected at the control center to witness the momentous touch down of Lander near the Moon’s South Polar region. However, the ISRO Chairman K Sivan has stated that the soft landing of the Vikram will be terrifying as ISRO has never performed a soft-landing on the Moon before.
After the landing, the rover – ‘Pragyan’ – will roll out from ‘Vikram’ between 5:30 and 6:30 am on September 7 and will start performing experiments on the lunar surface for a time period of one lunar day that equals to 14 earth days. However, the mission life of the Vikram lander up to one lunar day whereas the orbiter will continue to carry out its mission for a year.
For the latest gadget and tech news, and gadget reviews, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For newest tech & gadget videos subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You can also stay up to date using the Gadget Bridge Android App.
