ISRO's Chandrayan 2 mission details

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Chandrayaan-2 is India's second mission to the Moon. It is a follow-up to the Indian Space Research Organisation's Chandryaan-1 mission, which crash-landed an impactor on the surface of the Moon.

Over the next few days, Chandrayaan-2, which is carrying a six-wheeled rover, will perform a series of maneuvers to lower its orbit around the Moon. Currently, Chandrayaan-2 is revolving around the Moon in an elliptical orbit -- the closest the probe comes to the Moon is 118 kilometers away from the lunar surface, while its farthest point is 18,078 km.

After performing four sets of orbit maneuvers, Chandrayaan-2 will be primed for its ultimate function -- landing the six-wheeled rover, called 'Pragyaan', on the Moon. Pragyan is traveling onboard a lander named Vikram (after the father of Indian space research program, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai), which will land on the Moon on September 7.

How isro will carry out chandrayana 2 in following days is given below.

AUGUST 21

On August 21, Chandrayaan-2 will perform a maneuver to lower its orbit around the Moon. Then Chandrayaan-2's onboard propulsion system will be used to descend slightly towards the Moon. Once the maneuver is successfully completed, Chandrayaan-2 will be in an elliptical orbit of 121 km x 4303 km -- the probe will be 121 km away from the Moon at the orbit's nearest point and 4,303 km away at its farthest point.

AUGUST 28

A week after the first orbit maneuver, Chandrayaan-2 will perform another similar maneuver. This maneuver will be performed on August 28 and will place the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit of 178 km x 1,411 km around the Moon.

AUGUST 30

On August 30, Chandrayaan-2 will perform its penultimate orbit maneuver around the Moon.  Once the August 30 maneuver is completed successfully, Chandrayaan-2 will be in an elliptical orbit of 126 km x 164 km.

SEPTEMBER 1

By the night of September 1, Chandrayaan-2 will be closest to the Moon. At the closest point, Chandrayaan-2 will be 114 km away from the lunar surface while at the farthest point it will be 128 km away from the Moon.

SEPTEMBER 2

September 2 is the D-Day for the Chandrayaan-2 mission. On this day, the lander Vikram will separate from the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft and get into an orbit of its own around the Moon. The lander Vikram houses the six-wheeled rover Pragyaan that will explore the lunar surface.

SEPTEMBER 3

On September 3, Isro will carry out a maneuver to check that the lander Vikram is in good health.

SEPTEMBER 4

A day later, the lander Vikram will perform a maneuver to lower its orbit around the Moon. Once successful, the maneuver will place the lander in an elliptical orbit of 35 km x 97 km around the Moon. Over the next three days, the Isro will keep checking the parameters of the lander to make sure that everything is a-okay.

SEPTEMBER 7

On September 7,  the "15 minutes of terror" for the Isro scientists back home will begin. The lander Vikram will begin its powered descent on to the surface of the Moon. Vikram will be attempting what no other country has been able to successfully to do -- perform a 'soft landing' near the south pole of the Moon.

The goal of chandrayana 2.

One of the Chandrayaan-2's primary missions is to further the discovery of water made by Chandryaan-1. Chandrayaan-2 and its rover Pragyaan will perform a series of experiments and tests to ascertain the extent of water presence on the Moon.

HAT MAKES CHANDRAYAAN-2 SO SPECIAL?

With Chandryaan-2, India will become only the fourth country in the world to land a rover on the Moon. Previously, the United States, Russia, and China have landed rovers on the Moon.

However, none have done what the Indian Space Research Organisation is attempting to do -- land near the south pole of the Moon. Israel attempted a 'soft landing' near the south pole this year, but the mission failed and the Israeli probe crashed instead.