Chandrayaan-2's moon landing: A historic moment, says Nehru Planetarium director Arvind Paranjape

Expressing his delight over Chandrayaan-2's landing on the surface of the moon, Nehru Planetarium's director Arvind Paranjape on Friday said that it is going to be a historic moment and will open doors for many new findings.

While talking to ANI, hours before India's ambitious lunar mission begins its descent on the moon, Paranjape told ANI, "If the moon had an atmosphere, it would have been much easier, we would have deployed a parachute and slowly reduced the speed and landed on the moon, but now in this case of no atmosphere, speed has to be reduced very accurately, plus it has to make sure that wherever it's landing there are no boulders and pits on its way."

Terming it as a proud moment for India, he also outlined that none of the countries except China have been able to achieve such feat in last many years.

Elaborating further on the probe mission's future course of action, the director further stated that total of 13 experiments are planned, out of which one experiment is of NASA where they are going to put a reflector, which will help to accurately determine the distance between the earth and the moon.

"Other Indian experiments on the list includes a search for the water on the surface of the moon and mapping the surface of the moon among others", he added.

After revolving around the Earth's orbit for nearly 23 days, the craft began its journey towards the moon's surface on August 14.

The mission took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 22.