Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, June 27: ”Chandrayan 2″, India’s ambitious lunar Mission, will take 59 days to reach the Moon, which means that after taking off from Sriharikota on July 15 early morning at 2:50 am, it will land on the surface of Moon around first half of September.
Disclosing this here today in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh sought the permission of the Chair to request the Members of Parliament, across the Party lines and from all Parties, to join together and give an applause to the grand success achieved through the relentless efforts of Team ISRO and the Scientists in the fraternity of Space Technology. While the entire House welcomed the suggestion with the thumping of desks, he said, this is going to be a moment of pride for each one of us and it has been made possible by the fraternity of Space Scientists, who have, over the years, worked in a “mission mode” to accomplish the Space Missions.
For many who are not familiar with the working of Space Missions, Dr Jitendra Singh said, it may be difficult to visualize how India today has overtaken some of the most advanced nations like USA and Russia which started their Space journey several years before us.
Emphasizing the importance of “Chandrayan” mission, Dr Jitendra Singh recalled that even though USA was the first to land a human being on the surface of Moon in late 1960s, whose name was Neil Armstrong and who also had a walk around, before undertaking his return journey, but it was only years later that “Chandrayan 1” mission sent by India could discover the presence of water on the surface of Moon. This was a historic information, he said, because it gave an indirect hint of the possibility of human habitat on Moon and following this discovery, not only the Indian Scientists but even the most pioneer Space Centres like NASA started working on the implications of water’s presence on the surface of Moon.
Dr Jitendra Singh disclosed that “Chandrayan 2”, which is a purely indigenous Space Mission, will carry an Orbiter and a Lander which will have a Rover inside. After landing on the surface of the Moon, he said, the Rover will come out of the Lander and collect samples and other useful data for analysis. The entire process after landing on the surface of the Moon and the subsequent experiments will take roughly about 14 days, he added.
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