Chandrayaan 2: Ahead of ISRO's grand launch, here are 10 points that make India's moon mission special

ISRO is set to launch its moon mission Chandrayaan-2, at the scheduled time of 2:51 am on July 15. This moon-lander and rover mission proves that India is taking lead in space exploration as its mission aims to investigate the unexplored south pole of the moon. With Chandrayaan-2 India aims at the soft landing on the Moon. If successful, it will be the fourth country after US, Russia and China to do so. 

While all eyes are set at the watch to tick 02:51 AM, June 15 whne the launch of Chandrayaan 2 will take place, here are the exclusive 10 points from Chandrayaan 2 that makes its special:

1. Three countries namely US, Russia, China have successfully landed a probe in the moon. If succesful in landing Chandrayaan 2, India will be fourth country in the world to do so. 
    
2. Chandrayaan will be first moon mission to South Pole region of the moon. Earlier on Jan. 2, China landed its Chang'e-4 probe on the far side of the moon. India's Chandrayaan 1 that was launched in 2008 confirmed the presence of water on Moon's surface. 
    
3. The carrier of Chandrayaan -2 - GSLV Mk-3 is India's most powerful launcher till date. 
4. The time period of the mission is one year and the Orbiter will be placed in a 100*100 kilometre lunar polar orbit. It will take 53 to 54 days to travel the 3.84 lakh km to reach the moon. 
    
5. The lander of the Chandrayaan-2 is named as Vikram. It is designed to function for one lunar day, that is 14 earth days. 
    
6. Pragyan Rover - a six wheeled robotic vehicle is also a part of Chandrayaan-2. It can travel upto 500 m .
    
7. Described as '15 terrifying minutes', ISRO aims at providing its moon mission a soft landing.
    
8. The total estimated time for the travel of Chandrayaan -2 from Earth to Moon is three weeks. It is expected to land on moon on September 6. 
    
9. The orbiter and lander and almost the entire Chandrayaan -2 is Made in India. 
    
10. Chandrayaan -2 is one of the cheapest lunar exploratory missions. 

READ: Chandrayaan 2 LIVE: India Set To Script History With ISRO's Moon Mission, Latest Updates Here

The primary payloads that are part of Chandrayaan 2 and their work, as per ISRO are:

1. Chandrayaan 2 Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer: Elemental composition of the Moon
    
2. Imaging IR Spectrometer: Mineralogy mapping and water-ice confirmation
    
3. Synthetic Aperture Radar L & S Band: Polar-region mapping and sub-surface water-ice confirmation
    
4. Orbiter High Resolution Camera: High-resolution topography mapping
    
5. Chandra's Surface Thermo-physical Experiment: Thermal conductivity and temperature gradient
    
6. Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope: In-situ elemental analysis and abundance in the vicinity of landing site

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