India Confirms Chandrayaan-2 Mission to the Moon

In its release, yesterday, of major space projects for the current year, the India Space Research Organization (ISRO) confirmed it is working towards the launch of its second mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-2. Although this press coverage of the up-coming mission does not give a date for launch, as recently as this past Summer ISRO reported that the launch would take place by 2017. This is a very ambitious mission, to include an orbiter, lander, and rover, which has been reformulated as conditions changed. The original launch date was 2011, but there were various delays, partly as a re-working of the Russian contributions to the mission.

Following on the heels of the highly-successful 2008 Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter, ISRO concluded an agreement in 2010 with Roscosmos, in which Russia would be responsible for the lunar lander, and ISRO would provide the orbiter and rover, as well as the launch vehicle. But the failure of Russia’s 2011 mission to Mars’ moon Phobos led to a redesign of the lunar mission, with Russia deciding to focus on improving its own planetary mission technology, and India deciding that the lander would also be built by ISRO, using inputs from Russian technology. The surface mission of Chandrayaan-2 will be to investigate the chemical composition of the lunar soil.