https://twitter.com/ISROSpaceflight/status/1901509055421796704

Chandrayaan-5 and India’s Future Lunar Missions

ISRO has a series of important missions lined up. Chandrayaan-4, which got government approval last year, will focus on landing on the Moon, collecting samples, and safely returning them to Earth. Chandrayaan-5 will take things a step further with a heavier lander and advanced technology, helping ISRO prepare for future human missions.

India also plans to send astronauts to the Moon using an indigenous rocket in the coming years. The long-term goal is to establish a sustainable presence on the Moon and expand India’s capabilities in deep space exploration.

Chandrayaan-5 and India’s Expanding Space Launch Capabilities

ISRO has been making steady progress in satellite launches. Since 2014, India has launched satellites for 34 countries, including the US, UK, Singapore, and Canada. In the past 10 years, ISRO has launched 393 foreign satellites and three Indian commercial satellites using its PSLV, LVM3, and SSLV rockets.

A new rocket launch center is under construction at Kulasekarapattinam in Tamil Nadu. The project started on March 5, 2024, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi laying the foundation stone. This new spaceport will focus on launching small satellites using the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), with support from Indian industries.

ISRO’s Key Achievements and Scientific Successes

ISRO has achieved several milestones in space exploration. Chandrayaan-1 discovered water on the Moon, and Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed at the Moon’s south pole — making India the first country to do so. India has also made progress in solar research, becoming the fourth country to launch a dedicated satellite to study the Sun.

The Chennai event was attended by key figures, including former Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, former MLA Vijayadharani, and former Chennai Mayor Saidai Duraisamy.

With the approval of Chandrayaan-5, India is moving closer to its dream of a human Moon landing. The partnership with Japan, the new space station, and the growing satellite launch capabilities are signs that India is becoming a major player in the global space race. ISRO’s future looks bright as it continues to push the boundaries of space exploration.

In its C58 mission, ISRO’s dependable Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) launched the primary X-Ray Polarimeter satellite, or XPoSat, into a planned Low Earth Orbit of 650 km.  The launch held from the Sriharikota launch pad at the appointed time of 9:10 AM. 

As the 25-hour countdown concluded, the 44.4-meter-tall rocket blasted off gracefully to a tremendous ovation. 

Polarimeter is the first specialized scientific satellite from ISRO to conduct studies on space-based polarization measurements of X-ray emission from celestial sources, according to the space agency. When analyzing the radiation process and geometry of astronomical sources, X-ray polarization is an essential diagnostic tool.

POLIX (Polarimeter Instrument in X-Rays), developed by the Raman Research Institute to determine polarimetry parameters, and XSPECT (X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing), constructed by the U R Rao Satellite Centre, Bengaluru, are the main payloads of XPoSat. POLIX is expected to observer about 40 bright astronomical sources of different categories during the planned lifetime of the XPoSat mission of about 5 years. 

NISAR, a cutting-edge joint venture satellite between ISRO and NASA, will also be launched in the first quarter of 2024. NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar), which was built for over Rs. 12,500 crores (about $1.5 billion), is intended to be launched onboard India’s GSLV rocket. Studying terrestrial ecosystems, solid earth deformation, sea ice, mountain and polar cryosphere, and coastal waters on a regional to global scale will be made much easier with the use of NISAR data.

 ISRO gives this information by tweeting on its official account. “Launch of sounding rocket (RH-560) to study attitudinal variations in the neutral winds and plasma dynamics carried out today at SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota “, tweeted ISRO.

#RohiniSoundingRockets #ISRO

A Press Meet was organized on March 12, 2021, at Antariksh Bhavan, ISRO Headquarters, Bengaluru by NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) to brief the media on its activities and achievements in which the company’s chairman and managing director G Narayanan told reporters that NSIL would raise Rs 2,000 crore annually through equity and debt.

The NSIL, under the aegis of the Central Government’s Department of Space, also launched its first commercial mission on 28 February.

ISRO launched the PSLV-C51 / Amazonia-1 mission from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. India’s PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) C-51 took off on Sunday, carrying Brazil’s Amazonia-1 and 18 other satellites.

Honorable Prime Minister congratulated NSIL and ISRO in a tweet, Congratulations to NSIL and @isro on the success of the 1st dedicated commercial launch of PSLV-C51/Amazonia-1 Mission. This ushers in a new era of Space reforms in the country. 18 co-passengers included four small satellites that showcase dynamism and innovation of our youth.

The top panel of this spacecraft has a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi engraved on it.

According to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in a statement, PSLV-C51 is the 53rd mission of PSLV and Amazonia-1 satellite will provide remote sensing data for monitoring deforestation in the Amazon region and analyze the diverse agriculture in the Brazilian region to further strengthen the existing infrastructure.

In another tweet, PM Narendra Modi congratulated Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro on the successful launch of Brazil’s Amazonia-1 satellite by  PSLV-C51. Prime Minister said, “Congratulations President @jairbolsonaro on the successful launch of Brazil’s Amazonia-1 satellite by PSLV-C51. This is a historic moment in our space cooperation and my felicitations to the scientists of Brazil.” 

ISRO chief K.K. Sivan and other scientists congratulated each other on the installation of all 10 satellites in designated orbits. Later, Sivan from the Mission Control Center said that today is a historic day which coincidentally is the day of the 50th flight of PSLV. He said, “ISRO has carried out the historic mission. I am very happy to announce that the 50th PSLV has successfully installed ‘RISAT-2 BR1’ in an orbit of 576 km in a very precise manner.

ISRO released this information on their official Twitter handle.

K. Sivan said that “RISAT-2BR1” is a “complex” satellite, but it was built in a short time. He praised the team involved in the work. In relation to PSLV, he recalled the contributions of “extraordinary space personalities” like Dr Srinivasan, Dr Madhavan Nair, from design to form. He underlined that Nair had activated the launch vehicle. Sivan said that the carrying capacity of PSLV has increased from 860 kg to 1.9 ton.

There were over 7000 visitors who witnessed the launch of PSLVC48

PM Narendra Modi has congratulated him on this success of ISRO. ISRO chief K Sivan also expressed happiness over this successful launch. He said Cartosat-3 is the highest resolution civilian satellite. In total, ISRO has successfully launched 14 satellites together today through the Cartosat-3 satellite.

PM Modi expressed his wordings on twitter. He wrote, I heartily congratulate the entire ISRO team on yet another successful launch of PSLV-C47 carrying indigenous Cartosat-3 satellite and over a dozen nanosatellites of USA.

Advanced Remote Sensing Satellite Cartosat-3 will be launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on November 25 at 9.28 am and 13 small commercial satellites of America will also be sent with it. It will be launched with PSLV-C47 rocket. Cartosat will be used to gather weather and military information.

Cartosat-3 weighs around 1500 kg. It is the first of the third generation Advanced High-Resolution Earth Imaging Satellites. Chandrayaan-2 was launched on 22 July. Its orbiter was successfully placed in the moon’s orbit, but on 7 September the lander Vikram Soft failed to make a landing.

The 3D image of a crater is captured by the Terrain Mapping Camera-2 which is on the Chandrayaan 2.

The information is officially confirmed by ISRO on the Twitter Account. The ISRO official tweeted “Have a look of 3D view of a crater imaged by TMC-2 of #Chandrayaan2. TMC-2 provides images at 5m spatial resolution & stereo triplets (fore, nadir and aft views) for preparing DEM of the complete lunar surface,”

The triplet images from TMC-2 when processed into Digital Elevation Models, enable mapping of surface landform morphologies. These Includes:

• Craters (formed by impactors)
• Lava tubes (potential sites for future habitability)
• Rilles (furrows formed by  lava channels or collapsed lava tubes)
• Dorsa or wrinkle ridges (formed mostly in Mare regions depicting cooling of and contraction of basaltic lava)
• Graben structures (depicts the structural dislocations on the lunar surface )
• Lunar Domes/ Cones (denoting localized vents of past volcanism on the Moon).

According to ISRO, Vikram Lander has been located by the orbiter of Chandrayaan 2, but there is no communication with it yet. ISRO also told that the Vikram Lander is in one piece but it is tilted. ISRO is continuously trying to re-establish the communication with Lander Vikram. So, there is still hope

PM Modi kept hugging(K. Sivan) for a long time and encouraged him. In view of this development, PM Modi also addressed the nation at eight o’clock this morning. He said, ‘You are the people who live for Maa Bharti for her glory. You are the people who fight for the glory of Mother Bharati. You are the people who have a passion for Mother Bharati. Mother Bharti spends her whole life for getting head high. They encapsulate their dreams.

PM Modi has also tweeted about this event

See the entire timeline of Chandryaan 2 mission

July 14: First try for Chandryaan 2 mission

July 15: Mission was aborted due to some technical issue

July 18: Chandrayaan 2 again set to launch

July 22: Launch successful

Aug 20: Chandrayaan 2 successfully entered into lunar orbit

Sept 03: First de-orbital manoeuvre for Lander Vikram Completed

Sept 06: Chandryaan 2 landing day