Chandrayaan - 2 captures its first image of the moon

World Thursday 22/August/2019 20:10 PM
By: Times News Service
Chandrayaan - 2 captures its first image of the moon

Sriharikota: Recently launched Indian space probe Chandrayaan - 2 took some pictures of the moon before beginning its descent.

Chandrayaan -2 is scheduled to land on the moon, after it successfully orbited the Earth five times and subsequently entered the moon’s orbit.

The probe’s ‘Vikram Lander’ took photos of the moon’s surface at a height of about 2650 km from lunar surface on August 21, 2019.

In the picture shared by the Indian Space Research Organisation or ISRO on Twitter, the Mare Orientale basin and Apollo craters are identified.

The probe’s mission is to attempt a soft-landing on the moon’s surface and map and locate an abundance of lunar water.

According to the official mission objectives provided by ISRO, the lander and the rover called Pragyan will land on the near side of the Moon, in the south polar region at a latitude of about 70° south on 7 September 2019. The wheeled Pragyan rover will move on the lunar surface and will perform on-site chemical analysis for 14 days (one lunar day).

Launch of Chandrayaan-2 was originally scheduled for 15 July 2019, but was called off due to a technical snag noticed while filling the cryogenic engine of the rocket with helium.

It was subsequently successfully launched on 22 July.

A successful landing would make India the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, after the space agencies of the USSR, the USA and China.