Chandrayaan-2 touchdown tonight: Here's why ISRO went after Moon's unexplored South Pole

India will script history in the wee hours of Saturday early morning as the country's Chandrayaan-2 will land on the region of the Moon which has not been explored by any country in the world before.

The region remains unexplored and discoveries made from here can increase our understanding of space.

"The lunar surface area here that remains in shadow is much larger than that at the North Pole," ISRO stated.

"Evidence for water molecules discovered by Chandrayaan-1, requires further studies on the extent of water molecule distribution on the surface, below the surface and in the tenuous lunar exosphere to address the origin of water on Moon," ISRO's website read, adding that "there is a possibility of the presence of water in permanently shadowed areas around it".

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on its website has described Chandrayaan-2 an Indian lunar mission "that will boldly go where no country has ever gone before the Moon's south polar region," with an aim to "to improve our understanding of the Moon".
 

ISRO, on its website, explained that the South Pole region of the Moon has craters "that are cold traps and contain a fossil record of the early Solar System".

ISRO further noted that the discoveries from the mission will benefit India and humanity, with insights and experiences that could bring a "paradigm shift in how lunar expeditions are approached for years to come propelling further voyages into the farthest frontiers".

ISRO states that the surface of the Moon offers a "promising test-bed to demonstrate technologies required for deep-space missions".