India set to launch second lunar mission in mid-July

India's second mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-2, is scheduled to lift off at 2:51 am on July 15 from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. Space agency ISRO is giving final touches to the 3.8-ton satellite that has cost the country more than Rs. 600 crore. After launch, the Chandrayaan-2 satellite will take several weeks before it heads for a challenging soft-landing on the south pole of the moon, a territory that has never been visited by any spacecraft.

The mission, if successful, would make India only the fourth country behind the United States, Russia and China to perform a “soft” landing on the moon and put a rover on it. China successfully landed a lunar rover in January.

Chandrayaan-2 consists of an orbiter, a lander named Vikram and a rover named Pragyaan and the nominal mission life of the lander is expected to be 14 earth days or one lunar day. The lander will also measure moonquakes.

The Chandrayaan-2 satellite weighs 3.8 tons or roughly the weight of 8 full grown elephants, the rover is carried inside the lander and will do on-site experiments on the lunar surface for about 14 days and it is solar powered.

Chandrayaan-2 will explore a region of moon where no mission has ever set foot. The ISRO chief said the landing site, at about 70 degrees south latitude, is the southernmost for any mission till date. No country has attempted this before.

The mission will demonstrate soft landing for future missions and it carries 13 Indian scientific instruments that will help analyse the minerals on the moon, map the moon surface and search for water.

“The last 15 minutes to the landing are going to be the most terrifying moments for us,” ISRO Chairman K. Sivan told media on Wednesday. The agency said variations in lunar gravity, terrain and dust could all cause problems.

A NASA instrument for LASER ranging is being carried "free of cost", Dr Sivan said. Hence, in a way, India is giving a free ride to the American space agency to the moon.

Though Chandrayaan-2 is an indigenous mission, India will use the Deep Space Network of NASA on payment basis for navigation and guidance.