Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman S Somanath has informed that India will continue sending lunar missions until ‘an Indian lands on the Moon’. The scientist noted that the agency will continue their series of Chandrayaan missions and probes until an astronaut from the country lands on the Moon.
Somnath was in Ahmedabad as the chief guest of a programme organised by the Astronautical Society of India.
In August 2023, ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft had made a soft landing on the south pole of the Moon's surface, making India the first country to achieve the feat.
“Chandrayaan 3 has done very well. Data has been collected and scientific publication has just started. Now, we want to continue the Chandrayaan series till an Indian lands on the Moon. Before that, we have to master many technologies, such as going there and coming back. That we are trying to do in the next mission,” Somanath said.
Somanath said ISRO will carry out an uncrewed Gaganyaan mission, a test vehicle flight mission and an airdrop test in 2024.
“The airdrop test will happen on April 24. Then two more uncrewed missions will happen next year and then the manned mission, if everything goes well, by the end of next year,” the ISRO chairman said.
The Gaganyaan project envisages the demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of 3 members to an orbit of 400 km for a 3-day mission and bringing them back safely to Earth, by landing in Indian sea waters.
Somanath said ISRO's newly developed Carbon-Carbon (C-C) nozzle will improve payload capacity for being lightweight and it will be installed in the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or PSLV.
In a release on April 16, ISRO announced that it had achieved a breakthrough in rocket engine technology with the development of a lightweight C-C nozzle for rocket engines, enhancing payload capacity.
This innovation accomplished by the space agency's Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre promises to enhance the vital parameters of rocket engines, including thrust levels, specific impulse, and thrust-to-weight ratios, thereby boosting the payload capacity of launch vehicles, it said.
