New Delhi:
With Chandrayaan-2’s ‘Vikram’ module all set for a historic soft-landing on the Moon on September 7, everyone is excited to witness this once in a lifetime event live. Chandrayaan-2’s lander ‘Vikram’, with rover ‘Pragyan’ housed in it, is scheduled for a powered-descent between 1 am and 2 am on September 7, followed by its touchdown between 1.30 am and 2.30 am. Following the landing, the rover ‘Pragyan’ will roll out from ‘Vikram’ between 5.30 am and 6.30 am.
India’s second lunar expedition is expected to shed light on a completely unexplored section— its South Polar region.
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Soft-landing on the south pole of the moon is considered the most challenging part of the mission. According to ISRO, the lunar South Pole is especially interesting because of the lunar surface area here that remains in shadow is much larger than that at the North Pole.
Here we are going to tell how you can watch the live streaming of the soft-landing:
1. ISRO will be streaming the landing from its official website i.e. https://www.isro.gov.in/.
2. The Press Information Bureau (PIB) will live stream the soft-landing through its YouTube i.e https://www.youtube.com/user/pibindia/.
3. National Geographic, the American television network, will bring in NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger in an exclusive live show where he will share his experiences in space. The show will be broadcast live on National Geographic and Hotstar on September 6, 2019, from 11.30 pm onwards.
ALSO READ | Chandrayaan 2 landing will be witnessed by two students along-with PM Narendra Modi
ISRO has said, Chandrayaan-2 would attempt to soft-land the lander ‘Vikram’ and rover ‘Pragyan’ in a high plain between two craters, Manzinus C and Simpelius N, at a latitude of about 70 south.
While, the ‘Pragyan’ will carry out experiments on the lunar surface for a period of one lunar day, which is equal to 14 earth days, the main orbiter would continue its mission for a year.
Pointing out that Chandrayaan 2 was going to South Pole, a place where nobody else has gone, ISRO Chairman K Sivan had earlier said, the entire scientific community of the nation and the globe were eagerly waiting for the mission.
According to him, there is both convenience and science involved for choosing the South Pole.
“From the science point of view, the south pole is under shadow region more than North Pole, so because of this special aspect of south pole, water is expected to be more there and also more minerals are expected to be there,” he had said.
According to the space agency, Moon provides the best linkage to Earth’s early history as it offers an undisturbed historical record of the inner Solar system environment.
Though there are a few mature models, the origin of Moon still needs further explanations, they said.
Extensive mapping of lunar surface to study variations in its composition is essential to trace back the origin and evolution of the Moon, ISRO said.
Evidence for water molecules discovered by Chandrayaan-1, requires further studies on the extent of water molecule distribution on the surface, below the surface and in the tenuous lunar exosphere to address the origin of water on Moon, he added.
With PTI Inputs
