India set to step on moon for the first time

The last time any country stepped on moon was back in 2013 by China. India now claims that by next year it will also contribute to the list of countries that landed on moon.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is all ready to land its first lunar rover as a part of its ‘Chandrayaan-2’ mission by late March 2018. The word ‘Chandrayaan’ that means moon vehicle or moon journey, has been derived from the word ‘Chaand’ meaning moon.

While this is not the first ISRO’s journey to the moon, it is, however, Indian government’s most difficult moon exploration project till now. The previous ‘Chandrayaan-1’ went off to space from the East coast of India back in 2008 with an approximate price of $83 million. Magnetic water was detected but late in 2008 the probe crashed into the moon and got lost, which was later discovered by NASA in 2016 as a ruined spacecraft. Thus, this project will mark ISRO’s initial try to get an accurate close-up image of the lunar surface, reported Business Insider.

China to ‘plant’ potatoes on the moon

Three unmanned vehicles are being set up for the trip. One is an orbiter craft that will fly above the moon’s surface, second one would be a rover, and the third one would be a lander that will place the rover on the moon safely.

The orbiter craft would make a detailed 3D map of the moon surface whereas, the lander will get an up-close view of the moon’s crust and mantle. As per NASA, the craft would explore down a ‘depth of a few tens of meters’. The rover will travel on its own after being landed by the lander and will investigate the lunar rocks and soil. The whole project will be done on budget of $93 million, according to Nature.

If nothing goes wrong this time, the project will be finished in 14 Earth days that is the time for moon to take one complete orbit around Earth.

Moreover, ISRO is also working on a project ‘Aditya’ that is supposed to study the Sun. A 5-year satellite ‘XPoSat’ is also in works, which will be used to know more about cosmic radiation.