Bengaluru: India is readying for the launch of its second mission to the moon by early 2018, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Dr AS Kiran Kumar, said on Monday.
Named Chandrayaan-2, the mission is likely to be launched in the first quarter of 2018 and will include a lander and a rover, both of which are in the final stages of construction, Kumar said.
“The orbiter integration work is on currently. There are still a few trials of the lander and rover that will take place in December,” Kumar said while addressing a press conference.
ISRO’s second moon mission comes nearly ten years after its highly successful maiden attempt at exploring the moon - Chandrayaan 1 - was launched in 2008. The spacecraft had orbited around the moon for about a year, mapping the terrain and minerals.
It sent back high resolution images and other data. But most crucially, Chandrayaan-1 gave the first direct evidence of the presence of water-ice on lunar surface to the world.
Now, Chandrayaan-2 will further probe the moon for water-ice and water molecules, other elements and minerals. It also aims to understand geology of the lunar surface and possibly study moon-quakes too, scientists said.
Apart from Chandrayaan-2, ISRO will launch 28 commercial satellites for its customers along with another satellite from the CartoSat-2 series satellites in the second half of December.
Commenting on the need to improve their capabilities, Kumar said that the space agency is looking to increase the number of launches from 8-10 currently to 18 per year from the next year.
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