India Is Ready to Touch Down Near the Moon’s South Pole

India Is Ready to Touch Down Near the Moon’s South Pole

5 years ago
Anonymous $4ckUSNo_FL

https://www.wired.com/story/india-chandrayaan-2-lunar-lander-is-ready-to-touch-down-near-the-moons-south-pole/

For the last two weeks, India’s Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft has been lowering its orbit around the moon as it prepares for India’s first attempt at a lunar landing. On Monday, the Vikram lunar lander separated from the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, in the last major maneuver before the scheduled landing on Friday. If everything goes as planned, India will become the fourth country to pull off a controlled landing on the moon.

The Vikram lander will use eight small thrusters, five rocket engines, and a suite of onboard cameras to autonomously guide itself to its landing location—an area between two craters just 375 miles from the lunar south pole, which will make it the southernmost moon landing in history.