India has greenlit four major space projects, including the Chandrayaan-4 moon sample return mission, a Venus orbiter and the nations first space station module.
The Indian government allocated $2.7 billion for the ambitious projects, a substantial investment that officials say is certain to encourage “maximum participation” from the nation’s burgeoning private sector.
“India’s ambitious space vision and roadmap have now been given the wings to fly high,” ISRO chairman S. Somanath told Indian news channel NDTV.
The $2.7 billion was approved on Wednesday (Sept. 18) by the nation’s cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The funds include $253 million (21 billion rupees) for India’s return to the moon with the Chandrayaan-4 mission, which aims to collect an unspecified mass of samples at Shiv Shakti Point, the landing site of the now-dormant Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft near the lunar south pole. The region is of much interest to spacefaring nations thanks to its apparent abundance of water ice, which scientists think can be mined for life support and rocket fuel.
Back to the moon with Chandrayaan-4
Chandrayaan-4 will be a complex endeavor that will launch four modules across two LVM-3 rocket launches. The first rocket will ferry a lander and a sample-collecting ascender vehicle that will land on the rim of an unspecified crater near the moon’s south pole, while the second rocket will fly a transfer module and a reentry module and remain parked in moon orbit. The ascender will launch from the moon’s surface once samples have been collected and transfer its precious cargo to the re-entry module, which will then head back toward Earth for a safe touchdown. And that’s no easy feat, scientists say.
“There is a significant engineering challenge to solve when it comes to being able to launch back from the lunar surface, escape lunar gravity, and come back to earth,” Anil Bhardwaj, the director of the Physical Research Laboratory in Gujarat who is involved with many of India’s planetary missions, told Indian daily newspaper Mint.
Nevertheless, the Indian government is pushing ahead with the ambitious sample return plan to continue establishing the nation as a space superpower. “The mission would enable India to be self-sufficient in critical foundational technologies for manned missions, lunar sample return and scientific analysis of lunar samples,” according to a government statement released Wednesday. “This mission will also ensure the establishment…
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