February 16, 2018
The Chandrayaan-2 mission, which is expected to cost little over US$123 million, will place India at a new height in international space technology.
Last year, ISRO gathered global accolade after launching 104 satellites, including three from India and 101 from six foreign countries, in a single mission.
Over the last four years, ISRO has accomplished 48 missions, including 21 Launch Vehicle missions, 24 Satellite Missions and 3 Technology Demonstrators.
Meanwhile, India’s nuclear energy capacity has increased by 50 per cent from 4.8 GW in 2014 to 6.8 GW with the completion of the KudankulamUnit 1 and 2.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is preparing to launch Chandrayaan-2, India’s second mission to the moon, around April 2018. The announcement was made by Dr Jitendra Singh, India’s junior minister for Atomic Energy and Space. Chandrayaan-2 is anticipated to be a challenging mission as for the first time the project will carry an orbiter, a lander and a rover to the moon. The mission, which is expected to cost little over US$123 million, will place India at a new height in international space technology. Dr Kailasavadivoo Sivan, ISRO’s chairperson, added that if the mission’s launch could not take place in April due to unsuitable weather, the window for launch was open till October.
The Chandrayaan-1 mission, launched in October 2008, had performed high-resolution remote sensing of the moon surface. One of the objectives of the mission was to prepare a three-dimensional atlas of both near and far side of the moon. It aimed at conducting chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface for distribution of mineral and chemical elements such as Magnesium, Aluminium, Silicon, Calcium, Iron and Titanium as well as high atomic number elements such as Radon, Uranium & Thorium with high spatial resolution. The mission had marked several firsts for space technology.
Last year, ISRO had gathered global accolade after launching 104 satellites, including three from India and 101 from six foreign countries, in a single mission. The space agency had also launched the South Asia Satellite (GSAT-9), a geostationary communications and meteorology satellite, which will boost ties within the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region. Over the last four years, ISRO has successfully accomplished 48 missions, including 21 Launch Vehicle missions, 24 Satellite Missions and 3 Technology Demonstrators. The space organisation has become well known globally for its widely successful and still very competitively priced missions. Resultantly, utilisation of space technology has steadily increased among various indigenous projects and technologies.
The event discussing India’s achievements in the space sector, also discussed the nation’s progress in nuclear energy. S K Sharma, the chairman of the Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL), said that over the last four years there has been an increase of 50 per cent in capacity addition from 4.8 GW in 2014 to 6.8 GW with the completion of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (Unit 1 and 2). Nine other reactors are under construction which will further augment capacity by 6.7 GW. On completion of projects under construction and sanctioned, capacity will reach 22.5 GW by 2031. Nuclear energy provides an easy solution to India’s rapidly-growing energy market which is also shifting away from polluting fuels.