india

Updated: Jun 23, 2020 22:31 IST

There’s a Lucknow girl among the more than 60 children, selected to watch the moon landing of Chandrayaan 2 live along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) headquarters in Bengaluru. Rashi Verma is one of the whiz kids who won the honour after acing a quiz on space science, organised by the ISRO.

Two students from Class 8 to 10 from each state are being selected to watch the lunar landing. The lander which is carrying a rover is scheduled to land on the moon at 01:55 am on September 7.

“We do not have the list of the children who have been selected yet. The NIC (National Informatics Centre) had conducted the quiz and is in the process of compiling a list of winners,” said an official from ISRO.

The online quiz was conducted between August 10 and 25 and students had to answer 20 questions in ten minutes. All the participants will be issued certificates of participation.

Watch: Chandrayaan 2 about to create history: The journey so far

Rashi Verma, a class 10 student from Delhi Public School, Lucknow, is one of the selected students. “Given a chance I would like to talk to the Prime Minister. I want to become an IAS officer,” an excited Rashi said.

The lunar landing will be a big milestone for India’s space agency as this will be the first time any mission from the country will touch the surface of a celestial body. A successful landing will also make India the fourth country in the world to have landed on the moon after the USA, erstwhile USSR, and China.

The landing is also important for the larger scientific community as India has chosen to land near the lunar South Pole. There are craters in this area that have not seen sunlight for billions of years. These craters are expected to contain about 100 million tons of water. The cold traps found in the region also have the origins of the solar system well-preserved.

Chandrayaan-2, a three-module spacecraft comprising an orbiter, lander and rover, which was launched on July 22, will land on the moon on September 7.