Liftoff is planned for 5:05 p.m. EDT from the Satish Dhawan Space Station in Andhra province of Sriharikota just above Chennai on the southeast coast.

However, if there is a delay, the launch window extends to Wednesday. After that, the launch attempt would have to be put off until September, officials said.

To carry out its plan, the Indian Space Research Organization will send a spacecraft trio: a module that will sail all the way to the moon and enter orbit around it, a lander, called Vikram, to reach the surface, and Pragyan, a six-wheeled mini-rover that will travel to explore a region near the lunar South Pole.

The landing is planned for Aug. 23 or 24, assuming no launch delay occurs.

A GSLV Mk III rocket, India's most powerful and normally used to launch communication satellites, will be stretched to the limit of its abilities to lift the 8,600-pound payload.

Pragyan will take two weeks, or one lunar day, to roam around and measure the soil temperature, using a a thermal probe that it will insert to a depth of 4 inches. Specifically, the probe will measure how heat spreads from the upper surface, going downward.

"Temperatures dictate the presence, stability and mobility of water on the moon," planetary scientist K. Durga Prasad, told Scientific American magazine.

In the darkness of the night that will follow, temperatures will drop hundreds of degrees below freezing, killing its batteries, scientists said.

The rover carries a mass spectrometer to analyze soil composition and a seismograph to listen for mini moon quakes - to provide scientists with clues about the moon's internal structure.

Another instrument will analyze the effect of subatomic particles from the sun interacting with sand and dust.

Chandrayaan-2, the precursor of the current mission was destroyed on Sept. 6, 2019, during the final minutes of the lunar landing. About 1 mile above the surface, a glitch apparently caused the descent module to wander off course and crash.

As a result, Indian scientists have studied and carried out extensive modifications to ensure Chandrayaan-3 will be a success.

While Chandrayaan-2 carried an orbiter, lander and rover, Chandrayaan-3 will not carry an orbiter. The orbiter from the previous mission still is functioning and providing data, Indian space officials said.

India's attempts to explore the moon date to 2008, when Chandrayaan-1, which did not land, confirmed the presence of water molecules on the moon's surface.

Source: United Press International

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