Indian Space Research Organisations’s Chandrayaan-2 mission has just finished one more orbiting manoeuvres around the Moon and thereby bringing it one step closer to a soft landing on the south pole (far side of the moon’s surface). Now, the lander is in its last stage, before it goes down to the lunar surface later this month.
The Indian space agency, ISRO says the manoeuvre was successfully accomplished this morning, starting at 3:42 am IST as planned. It was the lander’s second de-orbiting manoeuvre with the help of on-board propulsion system to have it drift a tad lower in its lunar orbit, for all of just 9 seconds.
“With this manoeuvre, the required orbit for the Vikram Lander to commence it descent towards the surface of the Moon is achieved,” ISRO said in a statement.
Termed as ‘Vikram’ lander, it is now in a position to make its way down to the Moon’s surface, leaving the orbit to stay circling up above. The first manoeuvre was performed less than a day ago after the lander got separated from the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter.
The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is now circling the Moon at an altitude of between 96 km and 125 km (at its closest and furthest points respectively). The Vikram lander is now between 35 km and 101 km. “Both the Orbiter and Lander are healthy,” ISRO said in a statement.
The lander is certain to touch down on Moon’s surface on September 7 between 1:30 am and 2:30 am. It would be a historic event in the making as India all set to become the first country in the world to make a soft landing on the Moon’s South pole.
Well, it is particularly a complex move, with the last 15 minutes of the automatic descent being the most dangerous step.
In case if ISRO loses communication with the lander at that point of time, it can crash. Yes, if the landing is off the pinpointed site even by a whisker, it can crash.