Chandrayaan 2, India’s Lunar Mission which will feature India’s most powerful rocket - GSLV Mk 3 - to carry the orbiter, lander and rover, is the most anticipated project of this year. But ISRO has much more in store than the widely known Chandrayaan-2 and Gaganyaan manned mission.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Yuvika- Young Scientist Programme for school students at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota Dr K Sivan, Chairman ISRO, said the agency is working on seven interplanetary missions in a decade. "The missions would include Mars Orbiter Mission 2, Chandrayaan 3, a mission to Venus, Exposat Planetary exploration, Aditya L1 among others," he said.
“There is a lot of interest in Venus and we have announced a lot of opportunities for the scientific community in India and abroad and around 20 payloads are coming”, Dr Sivan said. He also made a mention of a Mission Aditya L1 that could be launched in mid-2020 to study the Corona of the Sun, adding that it would help in understanding climate change.
While Aditya L1 and EXPO Sat mission are defined and okayed, the Mars Orbiter 2 and Chandrayaan 3 are in their planning stage. After planning it will be formed as a project and we will lead it, he said.
Responding to queries regarding Chandrayaan-2, he said that the agency is in the final stage of testing for the Orbiter, Lander, Rover and that they would be ready for launch by the end of May.
However, the launch is likely only in the first or second week of July due to an impending eclipse and other conditions, said the ISRO Chairman. This is a very important mission because we are landing at a place where nobody else has gone- near the South Pole of the moon and new date could emerge from this mission, he added.
Elaborating on the 13 payloads that the Chandrayaan -2 Mission would be carrying, he said, “Basically these payloads are looking at the composition of atmosphere, surface, mapping, sub-surface structure, Lunar surface composition etc.”
