Jeff Bezos wishes luck to India's Chandrayaan2 soft landing
Besides Jeff Bezos, space agencies like, NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and space enthusiast like Neil deGrasse Tyson are rooting for the successful landing of Isro's Vikram Lander.
As India remains just a few minutes away from scripting history by landing on the South Pole region of the Moon, many dignitaries, and space agencies from across the world wished luck to ISRO.
NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and space enthusiast like Neil deGrasse Tyson are curiously waiting to witness the soft landing of Isro's Vikram Lander.
So is Amazon Founder, Jeff Bezos who recently tweeted wishing India good luck and saying he was rooting for team India. Bezos is also the founder of a space tech company called Blue Origin.
If you wonder why Jeff Bezos is interested in India's Moon mission is because he himself has been planning to colonise the Moon! Yes, you read that right. In Washington DC, in May this year, Bezos unveiled Blue Moon, a lunar lander that he said could "help build out infrastructure on the Moon and lead to humanity's expansion into space."
He also said,
“We will go back to the Moon, this time to stay.”
His lunar lander will be powered by a new type of engine, the BE7 hydrogen-fuelled engine, and will run on liquid hydrogen. It will be capable of transporting 3.5 to 6.5 tonnes of cargo at one go. If it runs out of fuel, the lander can use hydrogen recovered from lunar ice on the moon’s surface.
Meanwhile, today at 1:40 am (IST), the Vikram Lander will autonomously operate itself and detect a spot on the lunar surface for its soft landing.
The entire operation will take 15 minutes. Which means after 1:55 am, India will successfully land on the South Pole region of the Moon.
Following which, Pragyan, a six-wheeled rover, will exit from Vikram Lander, and carry out experiments on the lunar surface. It will analyse the lunar soil for one lunar day, which is equal to 14 Earth days. The orbiter will continue its mission for one year.
Once the lander successfully reaches the surface of the Moon, India will be the fourth country after the US, Russia, and China to perform a successful soft landing.
(Edited by Dipti Nair)