The year 2019 was eventful for the Indian space odyssey, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has planned to work on more than 25 missions in 2020 with the determination to go for two prominent missions Gaganyan and Chandrayaan-3 respectively.
Chandrayaan-3: Successor of Chandrayaan-2
Chandrayaan-3 is considered as the successor to Chandrayaan-2 aiming to go for a soft landing on the Moon to wipe out the Chandrayaan-2’s soft landing failure on the lunar surface last year. Its lander Vikram crashed on the Moon’s surface, and India was engulfed by a wave of emotions reaching out to the team of ISRO scientists who have worked relentlessly for the moment to happen. However, Chandrayaan-2 was not unsuccessful. Its lunar orbiter is functioning and is continuing to study the Moon from afar.
INR 615 Cr project
At present, ISRO has been working on a war footing on its space mission plans for 2020-2021. The Chandrayaan-3 project, which is set for launch in 2020, is likely to be pushed to 2021. As per the expectations, Chandrayaan-3 project would cost over INR 615 Cr, while in the launch of Chandrayaan-2 total cost was INR 960 Cr. The space agency is looking to get an allocation of INR 14,000 Cr from the government in the budget of 2020-21.
Govt shows green signal
ISRO chairman K Sivan said on Wednesday, “Government has given the green signal to the space agency for mission Chandrayaan-3, the work on this project is in progress. However, the project is likely to take 14-16 months, which may be pushed to 2021”.
He further said, “Chandrayaan-3 will have a lander, rover and a propulsion module. The government has approved the project and we have formed the project team. Work is going on smoothly”.
Plan of a detachable module
Chandrayaan-3’s composition is almost the same as of its predecessor, the Chandrayaan-2. It means that the new project will have the lander and the rover with the propulsion module as well. India’s space agency ISRO has been planning to have a detachable module that will carry the fuel and help in taking the landing module.
Aim to cut the number of manoeuvres
Apart from this, ISRO is looking to cut down the number of operations around Earth and the duration of movement from Earth to lunar orbit. As per a source, “Instead of six manoeuvres around Earth, we may have just three or four; those details are being worked out.”
New launchpad in TN
Another encouraging report is that ISRO is ready to expand its infrastructure in other regions. A new launch pad is going to be established in Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu (TN), which is set to be used for the launch of SSLV (Small Satellite Launch Vehicle). This new venture has raised the hope that some more launching pads would be set up in the country to stretch the space mission plan in future.
New mission in less cost
Union Minister Jitendra Singh said that India is set to launch Chandrayaan-3 in 2020 (which is likely to extend) and had declared that the new mission would cost less than the previous lunar mission, the experience of Chandrayaan-2 and available infrastructure has cut down the cost of Chandrayaan-3.
Soft-landing on the lunar surface is a difficult mission; no country in the world has succeeded in this mission in its first attempt. The US succeeded in its mission after several attempts. A successful soft-landing on the Moon surface would make the country enter the list of coveted countries after USSR, US and China.
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