ISRO is planning to launch Chandrayaan-3, its third mission to the Moon in June next year, with a more robust lunar rover onboard that is crucial for future inter-planetary explorations.
The space agency has also prepared the first test flight of the ‘abort mission’ for the country’s first manned spacecraft Gaganyaan early next year.
,Chandrayaan-3 (C-3) launch will take place in June next year on Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3).” Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman S Somnath interacting with media persons during an event.
He said that ISRO plans to fly India Astronaut In orbit by the end of 2024 after completing successful abort missions and test flights without crew.
India’s first attempt to land a rover on the Moon failed after the Vikram lander on the Chandrayaan-2 mission crashed on the lunar surface in September 2019.
Somnath said, “C-3 is ready now. It is not a replica of C-2. The rover is there. The engineering is quite different. We have made it more robust so that there is no problem like last time.”
“There are many changes. The impact legs are stronger. It will have better equipment. If something fails, something else will happen,” the ISRO chairman said.
He said the rover will have different ways to calculate the altitude to be travelled, identify hazard-free locations and have better software.
On the manned spacecraft Gaganyaan, Somnath said ISRO will conduct six test flights before actually putting humans into orbit.
Somnath said that the preparations for the Gaganyaan mission are going on at a slow and steady pace.
He said, “This is the right way to put it. It is a very complex mission. We cannot boast about it. Very important steps need to be taken to overcome it.”
Gaganyaan’s first non-crew flight will be after two aborted missions to demonstrate that the space agency has the capability to rescue the crew in case of any incident.
Somnath said the first abort mission is likely to be carried out in trans-sonic conditions when the spacecraft is traveling at the speed of sound after reaching an altitude of 10-15 km.
The second crew must demonstrate rescue capabilities when Spacecraft is traveling at twice the speed of sound and is traveling in “not so good” aerodynamic conditions.
As part of the abort mission, space scientists must disembark the crew from the launch vehicle using a save system, unload and assemble the capsule carrying the crew into the water.
Somnath said, “If it is successful, we will repeat it once again and then we will go for an unmanned mission. The unmanned mission will be a complete rocket. It will go to orbit, then come back.”
“We will repeat the aborted missions twice and then another unmanned mission,” he said, adding that if these six test flights are successful there will be manned spaceflight.