BENGALURU, INDIA — The Indian Space Research Organization has announced plans to send a rover to the moon early next year, nearly a decade after its first lunar journey met with mixed success. <br /> <br />First Post reports that the spacecraft for India's Chandrayaan-2 moon mission is comprised of an orbiter, a lander, and a rover, which will first slingshot around Earth before being going into lunar orbit. <br /> <br />The lander will attempt a controlled or soft landing near the moon's south pole, while the orbiter travels around the moon. <br /> <br />Once on the surface, the lander will take thermal measurements and deploy the six-wheeled rover to explore the lunar terrain. <br /> <br />Among the things the mission will pay close attention to are abrasive particles known as lunar dust, which pose a significant challenge to human colonization of the moon. <br /> <br />The Chandrayaan-2 will be carried into space by the GSLV Mark II rocket, and is scheduled to launch from an island in the Bay of Bengal in March 2018. <br /> <br />India will carry out the final testing phase for the spacecraft in the coming weeks. The program's budget for the mission is relatively small, at only 93 million dollars.
