12 cover story cover story 13 SEPTEMBER 08-14, 2019 SEPTEMBER 08-14, 2019 Giant Leaps Ahead The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) lost contact with its lunar lander and rover but experts say the Chandrayaan-2 is "95% successful" as the mission's space probe has been put in its orbit around the moon. It can send back valuable data that will help ISRO's future missions. Here is a look at the missions the space agency has lined up in the coming years :: Raghu Krishnan Staying up there Reaching for the Sun Space Station, Aditya-1, 2019-2020 Origins of the universe around 2025 Aditya-I is India's first dedicated Astrosat-2, 2025 Within a decade, India Gazing at celestial bodies scientific mission to study the Sun. wants to have a space India plans to send a second A 400 kg class space telescope will station up there. The observatory in space. It will be a follow- X-Ray Polarimeter be inserted into a halo orbit 1.5 station will help up mission of Astrosat-1 — India's first dedicated million km from the Earth to study astronauts stay longer in Satellite, 2021 multi-wavelength space telescope — aimed at looking the three layers of the sun — space to conduct at the origin of the universe and discover new This satellite will measure the degree photosphere, chromosphere and experiments. India wants planets. ISRO is finalising a plan for the mission. and direction of X-ray photons from corona, the outer atmosphere of Manned space mission to launch the space at least 50 potential celestial sources. the star in our solar system. The station by 2025 around The satellite will have instruments mission is aimed at developing Gaganyaan, 2021 the time the built by the Raman Research insights on the weather in space Three Indian astronauts are expected to fly to International Space Institute. These will collect data to and to understand why the outer space in the country’s first human space flight Station is help us understand the composition, atmosphere of the Sun is 200 Befriending a solar sibling mission in 2021, nearly four decades after decommissioned around temperature and density of distant times hotter than the solar disc. Rakesh Sharma made his journey on a Russian 2028. China is also celestial instruments. This satellite The satellite is expected to be Mission Venus, 2023 rocket in 1984. This time, the Russians are planning a large space will be launched in the circular launched by next year. helping India make the space suits and train its station in the lower ISRO is planning a mission to the Earth’s “twin lower Earth orbit, around astronauts to live in a space capsule for the Earth orbit. sister”, Venus. Both the Earth and Venus share 500-700 km above week-long mission. A Geosynchronous Satellite similarities in size, mass, density, bulk Earth. composition and gravity. The space agency will Launch Vehicle Mk-3, an upgraded version of fly a spacecraft around 400 km over Venus to the rocket that sent the Chandrayaan-2 conduct research and understand its formation, mission to the Moon, will fly the its atmosphere and its interaction with the solar astronauts — fighter pilots wind. The mission is expected by 2023. selected from the Indian Air Force — to space.
Drilling with Japan Back to Mars Moon Mission, 2023 Mangalyaan-2, 2024 ISRO and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will send a joint mission to the ISRO plans to return to Mars Moon’s south pole. The mission through this mission. The includes landing a rover that will drill success of Mangalyaan has the Moon’s surface to conduct prompted the space agency scientific experiments. The primary to send a second probe by focus will be to explore the existence 2024, which will do of water. Japan is likely to provide the deeper studies of rocket and a lunar rover, while India is the Earth’s likely to contribute with a lander for neighbour and the mission, a follow-up of understand the Chandrayaan-2. It would explore the evolution of the red planet suitability of the region for better. establishing a sustainable lunar base.
Source: Isro, JAXA, news agencies
No of Indian No of academic Facts about `603 cr `375 cr 3.8 tonnes companies who 120 institutions Mission cost of Cost of the launcher, Weight of integrated module contributed to No of Indian companies involved in Chandrayaan-2 Chandrayaan-2, India’s GSLV Mk-3, India’s with orbiter, lander and rover, putting together who contributed to Chandrayaan-2 second mission to the Moon heaviest rocket including 14 instruments 1,500 GSLV Mk-3 making the spacecraft 15 project