Bengaluru: Students of Class 8, 9 and 10 across India, gear up! The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to conduct an online space quiz, whose winners will get the chance to watch Chandrayaan-2 land on the moon live from ISRO’s Bengaluru-based headquarters.
Accompanying the winners – two from each state and union territory – for the viewing will be PM Narendra Modi, apart from the scientists behind Chandrayaan-2.
Here’ an opportunity to learn about space and science and @isro . The quiz is open to all. Two students from each state/UT get to see the moon landing from Bengaluru. Have fun! https://t.co/i4IHWdcQMH
— Principal Scientific Adviser, Govt. of India (@PrinSciAdvGoI) August 3, 2019
ISRO tweeted about the competition Saturday evening. The quiz will have 20 questions, which will have to be answered in 300 seconds or five minutes. It will be live between 10 and 20 August, and can be taken here.
The initiative is part of a host of activities ISRO is planning to increase its outreach towards the public and students. These include an auditorium at the Sriharikota launch campus, where as many as 5,000 members of the general public can witness ISRO missions take off right before their eyes.
Also read: Viral photos of Earth ‘captured from Chandrayaan-2’ are old & digitally-generated
A September landing
Chandrayaan-2 is India’s second mission to the moon and consists of an orbiter, a lander called Vikram (named after renowned space scientist Vikram Sarabhai), and a rover named Pragyan.
It was to take off on 15 July, but the launch was postponed by a week after the team discovered a snag in the spacecraft at the last minute.
Chandrayaan-2 is currently in orbit around the Earth, performing orbit raising manoeuvres. It is expected to escape the Earth’s gravity and begin to move towards the Moon on 13 August.
The Vikram lander is scheduled to touch down on the lunar surface on 7 September.
Also read: The four stages Chandrayaan-2 will go through before it lands on the moon