HIGHLIGHTS

Chandrayaan-2’s lunar lander Vikram is all set to land on the Moon on September 7

Isro successfully completed the second and final de-orbital operations on Wednesday

The next step will be the Vikram Lander’s final descent to attempt a soft-landing on the lunar surface

India’s second Moon mission Chandrayaan-2’s lunar lander Vikram is all set to land on the Moon on September 7 with Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) completing the second and final de-orbital operations successfully on Wednesday.

The next step will be the Vikram Lander’s final descent to attempt a soft-landing on the lunar surface in the early hours of Saturday.

Joined by 60 high school students from across the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be present at the Isro centre in Bengaluru to witness live the space feat, said a senior Isro official.

A successful landing to the Moon will make India the fourth country after Russia, the US and China to achieve a soft-landing on the lunar surface. But it will be the first to launch a mission to the unexplored Moon’s south pole.

Read: 10 interesting facts about the moon we bet you didn’t know

With the final de-orbital operation completed successfully, the required orbit for the Vikram Lander to commence it descent towards the surface of the Moon has been achieved, Isro said.

According to Isro, Vikaram Lander’s second de-orbital operations began at 3.42 am using the on-board propulsion system and was completed in nine seconds.

According to the Indian space agency, Vikram Lander is scheduled to powered descent between 1 am to 2 am on September 7.

See: Isro shares 1st pictures of Earth sent by Chandrayaan-2

The touchdown on the Moon’s south polar region will be between 1.30 am-2.30 am, Isro said.

After the Moon touch down by Vikram Lander, the rover Pragyan will roll down from the lander to carry out the research for which it was designed.

Meanwhile, Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter will continue to go around the Moon in an orbit of 96 km x 125 km.

Both the Orbiter and Vikram are in good health, Isro said.

Read: Nasa, whole world will be watching Chandrayaan-2’s landing on moon, says former astronaut

Describing a soft-landing on the Moon, former Isro chief G Madhavan Nair said it’s something like flying saucers coming in hovering on the top and then slowly descending like in science fiction.

It’s almost a similar sequence which the Isro is going to implement, with practically no real-time controls on the ground.

“…Only on-board cameras would look for the right location and once it matches, there are five rocket engines which will precisely control by first reducing the speed and then making it virtually float at that point and have some lateral movement in such a way that it goes just to the location, slowly guide it to the landing site,” Nair explained.

On Monday afternoon, the Vikram Lander separated from its mother spacecraft Chandrayaan-2.

On July 22, the Rs 978 crore Chandrayaan-2 was launched into the space by India’s heavy lift rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III (GSLV Mk III) in a text book style.

Read: What will Chandrayaan-2 find on Moon? Isro gets best memes as answer

According to the Isro, the objective of Chandrayaan-2 is to develop and demonstrate the key technologies for end-to-end lunar mission capability, including soft-landing and roving on the lunar surface.

On the science front, the mission aims to further expand the knowledge about the moon through a detailed study of its topography, mineralogy, surface chemical composition, thermo-physical characteristics and atmosphere, leading to a better understanding of the origin and evolution of the moon, it said.

Source: India Today