The latest Moon mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation and the Mission (ISRO) will include launching to the Moon by a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)

The first Moon mission was called the Chandrayaan-1 and was a Moon probe. The second Chandrayaan-2 will be landing on the Moon. Chandrayaan-2 mission will be carrying the orbiter, lander, and rover on the Moon surface

India's second Moon mission is all set to take off in the next two weeks and the project is already advancing by leaps and bounds. The latest Moon mission is called the Chandrayaan-2 and will be an unmanned mission to the Moon. The first Moon mission was called the Chandrayaan-1 and was a Moon probe. The second Chandrayaan-2 will be landing on the Moon. The Chandrayaan-2 mission will be carrying the orbiter, lander, and rover on the Moon surface. The latest Moon mission has been created by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the mission will be launching to the Moon by a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). The payload for the Chandrayaan-2 will include a lunar, an orbiter, lander, and rover - all of which have been developed indigenously.

The entire weight of the Chandrayaan-2 system will be around 3.8 tons, out of which 1.3 tons is propeller fuel. The total cost of Chandrayaan-2 Moon mission is around Rs 800 crore (mainly satellite portion). The Chandrayaan-2 Moon mission will last for 15 Earth days, which is equal to one lunar day.

The instruments will be using solar energy to power their systems. Since the Moon will have 14 solar days, the mission is all in the green. They will be landing on the South Pole of the Moon and will be taking 14 payloads in total, out of which one payload is from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Here are the top five reasons why Chandrayaan-2 is the biggest space mission for India:

1. The Chandrayaan-2 Moon mission was signed over a decade back between the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and ISRO where it was mentioned that ISRO will be responsible for the orbiter and rover, while Roscosmos will be responsible for the lander. However, due to the Fobos-Grunt mission to Mars, Roscosmos withdrew from the Chandrayaan-2 project considering they had used the same technical schematics in other lunar projects as well, ergo Chandrayaan-2.

2. The orbiter's structure was made by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and was delivered to the Indian space agency in June 2015. There will an Orbiter High-Resolution Camera (OHRC) which will conduct high-resolution observations of the landing site before the separation of the lander from the orbiter.

3. ISRO has selected five scientific instruments which will be carried by the orbiter, four for the lander, and two for the rover. It was earlier reported that NASA and ESA will be a part of the mission by providing some scientific instruments for the orbiter, but ISRO in 2010 had stated that due to weight restrictions, Chandrayaan-2 will not be carrying foreign payloads on this mission. However, in the last moment move, about a month before the launch of the mission, NASA's laser retro-reflector was added to lander's payload to help scientists measure exact distances to the moon.

4. The mission will be carrying a number of technologies which include a high-resolution camera, navigation camera, hazard avoidance camera, an 800 N throttleable liquid main engine and altitude thrusters, altimeters, velocity meter, accelerometer, and the software component which is needed to run these components. The engineering models of the lander started undergoing aerial tests back during late October 2016 alongside the experiments which were being conducted at Challakere in Chitradurga district of Karnataka.

5. The Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission rover has been named Pragyan which weighs about 27 kg and will operate on solar power. The rover will operate on six wheels traversing 300 to 400-meter distance on the lunar surface, performing on-site chemical analysis and sending the data to the orbiter above, which will relay it to the Earth station.