Chandrayaan a shot in the arm, ISRO plans next mission

Press Trust Of India

Bangalore: With Chandrayaan-1 well on its way to moon without any glitch, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has now initiated a dialogue with its Russian counterpart on worksharing of Chandrayaan-2 which features a lander and a rover.

"Conceptual studies are in place. Overall configuration is finalised but the scientific experiments are yet to be finalised. It may take six months (for finalisation)", ISRO Chairman G Madhavan said.

"The lander will be from Russia. The Russian space agency is cooperating with us. The rover will be a joint development between Russia and India.

Many of the scientific instruments (payloads on board Chandrayaan-2) will be from India", Nair, also Secretary in the Department of Space, said.

Unlike the Chandrayaan-1, which will orbit the moon at an altitude of 100 km mapping topography and the mineralogical content of the lunar soil, the Chandrayaan-2 mission involves a lunar orbiting spacecraft and a lander and a rover on the moon's surface.

Project Director of Chandrayaan-1 Mayilsami Annadurai said the Government has approved a Rs 4.25-crore budget for the Chandrayaan-2 venture, with seed money of Rs 50 crore already in place.

Even for building the lander, India can contribute its expertise, Annadurai said, adding, work-sharing discussions on the mission (who will do what) are in progress with the Russian space agency.

Note: The Launching Pad for the next mission Chandrayaan -2 is already under construction in Heavy Engg. Corpn. at Ranchi. We are proud of this achievement as the Launching Pad for Chandrayaan-1 was also built here in HEC itself.