India has a chance to dilute the lunar triumvirate of Moscow, Washington and Beijing.
On Wednesday, at six o'clock in the evening Indian time, India has a chance to dilute the lunar triumvirate of Moscow, Washington and Beijing, becoming the fourth state in history to successfully land a lander on the lunar surface.
Unlike the lost “Luna-25”, which was supposed to land just 100 km from the landing site of “Chandrayana” the day before, the chances of the Indian mission's success are much higher, writes the BBC.
The fact is that the landing will take place with the additional support of the Indian lunar orbiter “Chandrayan-2”. And this will allow making the necessary changes to the calculated trajectory of the module in the case of a sudden jump in one of the landing parameters.
Simply put, if at the last moment (as usually happens), suddenly something goes wrong, most likely, scientists will have the opportunity to stabilize the device and continue landing.
It is reported that two-way communication has already been established between the devices. The second “Chandrayan” in lunar orbit has already sent a "Welcome, buddy!" signal to the third one descending to the surface and received confirmation of delivery.
However, several other factors play into the hands of the landing mission (which includes the “Pragyam” lunar rover).
Unlike the same ”Luna-25”, which launched after the Indian spacecraft, and intended to descend before it, “Chandrayan” has much more time to look around carefully while gliding along the orbit and choose a more suitable place on the surface for landing.
On Tuesday morning, a little over a day before the moon landing, the Minister of Science and Technology In India, Jetendra Singh published a timelapse (an accelerated video of a process), where the entire history of the construction of the components of the third “Chandrayana” is shown in a little over two minutes.
The “Vikram” descent module should touch the lunar surface at the beginning of the seventh evening Indian time (in London it will be 13:34, in Moscow 15:34).
It will be possible to watch the landing live on the Indian agency 's website or on Youtube .
