- India’s second mission to the moon, Chandrayaan 2, will be carrying a lot of 14 payloads when it takes off on July 15.
- Majority of the payloads — eight out of 14 — will be aboard the orbiter.
- ISRO’s biggest project till date is also collaborating with NASA to send their Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) to the moon.
The GSLV Mark III- M1, or 'Bahubali', will be launching today and carrying 3 modules — the orbiter, the lander called Vikram and Pragyan, the rover —that are taking 13 payloads from various Indian institutions and one from the US' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Together the instruments are going to build on Chandrayaan 1's discovery of water by soft landing on the Moon's South Pole to determine where more water can be found and how much of it is present.
This is the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) biggest project till date with a cost of nearly ₹10 billion. But, scientists are hoping that it will be well worth the investment because if successful, this will be the first time any country has landed on the Moon’s South Pole.
The orbiter will be doing most of the heavy lifting with eight of the 13 payloads resting on its shoulders, while the lander will be carrying three payloads and the Pragyan will carry two when they launch.
Chandrayaan 2, set to take off from the Sriharikota launch site on July 15 at 2:15am Indian Standard Time (IST), wants to build on Chandrayaan 1’s discovery of water on the moon but also try and understand the Solar System’s early history.
The mission will attempt a soft landing on a high plain between two of the Moon’s craters on the South Pole — Manzinus C and Simpelius N. It is expected to last a total of 15 days once ISRO successfully lands on the Moon.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is also collaborating with the US National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) to carry their Laser Retroreflector Array to the Moon.
Here’s a quick look at everything that Chandrayaan-2 will be carrying to the moon: