CHANDRAYAN & India

CHANDRAYAN & India
Bijit Kumar Roy, 1974 Mechanical Engineering

CHANDRAYAN is now a household name in India. CHANDRAYAN 3 had successfully landed LIKE A FEATHER in SOUTH POLE of MOON surface where no other nation had succeeded to land. Behind this successful landing there are years and years of hardships and failures which helped our great scientists to achieve where others had not dared. Now is the time of PRAGYAN and other payloads to perform their planned duty and unveil the secrets of the MOON.

RECENT STORY AND TIMELINE OF CHANDRAYAN MISSION

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Chandrayaan-3 mission detailed timeline till date.
• July 6: ISRO announces Mission Chandrayaan-3 launch date of July 14 from Sriharikota’s second pad.
• July 7: Successful vehicle electrical tests completed.
• July 11: Comprehensive 24-hour ‘Launch Rehearsal’ simulating the entire launch process concludes.
• July 14: LVM3 M4 vehicle launches Chandrayaan-3 into designated orbit.
• July 15: First orbit-raising manoeuvre successful, reaching 41762 km x 173 km orbit.
• July 17: Second orbit-raising manoeuvre places Chandrayaan-3 at 41603 km x 226 km orbit.
• July 22: Fourth orbit-raising manoeuvre establishes spacecraft in 71351 km x 233 km orbit.
• July 25: Another successful orbit-raising manoeuvre.
• August 1: Chandrayaan-3 inserted into translunar orbit (288 km x 369328 km).
• August 5: Successful lunar orbit insertion (164 km x 18074 km).
• August 6: Lunar orbit lowered to 170 km x 4,313 km.
• August 9: ISRO carefully moves the spacecraft’s path lower in its orbit around the moon. It has achieved a lunar orbit of 174 km x 1437 km
• August 14: Chandrayaan-3 gets closer to the moon’s surface in another controlled bringing it into an orbit of 150 km x 177 km
• August 16: The Indian spacecraft performs the fifth and final Moon-bound manoeuvre positioning itself in a near circular Lunar orbit of 163*153 km.
• August 17: The landing module, comprising the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover, gets separated from its propulsion system.
• August 18: Chandrayaan 3 successfully completed a ‘deboosting’ operation that reduced its orbit to 113 km x 157 km
• August 20: The Chandrayaan-3 made the final orbit adjustment by reducing it to be around 134*25 km, the farthest and nearest point from the moon respectively.
• August 23: The planned touchdown was successfully achieved.

After a 40-day journey into space, the Chandrayaan-3 lander, ‘Vikram’, touched down on the uncharted lunar South Pole on 23 August making India the first country to do so. As the Vikram lander carrying the Pragyaan rover in its belly touched down on the lunar surface, it marked a giant leap in India’s spacefaring journey providing a well-deserved finale to ISRO’s long years of toil. India has became the fourth country after the US, China, and Russia to have successfully landed on the moon’s surface.

On 24 August, ISRO said that Pragyan Rover began its moonwalk on the lunar surface. Talking to X (formerly Twitter), ISRO said, “Chandrayaan-3 Mission. Chandrayaan-3 Rover to MOX, ISTRAC, Moon walk begins! Pragyan rover will carry out interesting exploration for the next two weeks. The rover supposed to conduct experiments to study geology, mineralogy, and atmosphere of the Moon. The six wheeled rover will study the surface of the moon for several elements including magnesium, silicon, potassium, calcium and iron. It will also assist in understanding the Moon’s atmosphere, and day and night cycles.

The Pragyan rover would study the moon surface through its payload APXS – Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer – to derive the chemical and mineralogical composition of lunar surface to further enhance understanding.

The lunar south pole, with its deep craters engulfed in unending darkness, has enticed various nations to try and plant their flags there. According to NASA, the region is full of “mystery, science and intrigue”.

With the primary aim of putting a lander and a rover on the moon’s highlands near its south pole, Chandrayaan-3 has made India the first country to softly land a spacecraft in this particular region. India is now the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the moon, after the United States, the Soviet Union and China.

Luna-25, Russia’s first moon-landing spacecraft in nearly half a century, crashed into the moon after reportedly spinning out of control. Meanwhile, the US is said to be planning a crewed mission to land humans at the site in 2025. China is also planning a mission to the area before the end of the decade.

With deep craters, termed ‘cold traps’, the moon’s south pole is expected to host a vast reservoir of water ice in permanently shadowed regions. According to a report by NBC News, NASA administrator Bill Nelson has said that the area is far more treacherous than the site of the first moon landing in 1969. NASA is also said to be preparing for a return to the moon’s surface with the Artemis II mission next year. “Most lunar missions target the Moon’s south pole as the landing site because the lunar poles harbour an environment that represents the remarkable diversity on Earth, and are strikingly distinct from the familiar middle latitudes,” Manish Purohit, a former ISRO scientist involved in the Mangalyaan and Chandrayaan-2 missions.

However, it is no easy feat for a nation. A BBC report stated that transporting equipment from Earth to the Moon involves overcoming the Earth’s gravitational pull. “The larger the equipment, the more rocket and fuel load would be needed for a successful landing. The new commercial space companies charge around $1m to take a kilogram of payload to the moon,” it said.

The craters, untouched by sunlight for billions of years, offer an undisturbed record of the solar system’s origins. According to TV Venkateswaran, a scientist at Vigyan Prasar, an autonomous organisation under the Department of Science and Technology, the presence of water on the lunar south pole is of immense significance for future space exploration. “It can be converted into resources such as drinking water, oxygen and hydrogen for rocket fuel. Also, the permanently sunlit area in the region has a temperature of around minus 50 to 10 degrees Celsius, which provides better chemical conditions for the electronics onboard the rover and lander to work properly,” he told PTI.

NOW LET’S GO TO THE VERY BEGINNING OF THE MISSION
The Chandrayaan programme also known as the Indian Lunar Exploration Program is an ongoing series of outer space missions by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for the exploration of the Moon. The program incorporates a lunar orbiter, an impactor, a soft lander and a rover spacecraft.

Chandrayaan programme
There have been three missions so far with a total of two orbiters, landers and rovers each. While the two orbiters were successful, the first lander and rover which were part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission, crashed on the surface. The current Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed on the moon on 23 August 2023, making India the first nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the lunar south pole region, and only the fourth country ever to land on the moon

Programme structure
The Chandrayaan (Indian Lunar Exploration Programme) programme is a multiple mission programme. As of September 2019, one orbiter with an impactor probe has been sent to the Moon, using ISRO’s workhorse PSLV rocket. The second spacecraft consisting of orbiter, soft lander and rover was launched on 22 July 2019, by using a LVM3 rocket.

Phase I: Orbiter and Impactor
Chandrayaan-1
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced the Chandrayaan project on course in his Independence Day speech on 15 August 2003. The mission was a major boost to India’s space program. The idea of an Indian scientific mission to the Moon was first mooted in 1999 during a meeting of the Indian Academy of Sciences. The Astronautical Society of India carried forward the idea in 2000. Soon after, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) set up the National Lunar Mission Task Force which concluded that ISRO has the technical expertise to carry out an Indian mission to the Moon. In April 2003 over 100 eminent Indian scientists in the fields of planetary and space sciences, Earth sciences, physics, chemistry, astronomy, astrophysics and engineering and communication sciences discussed and approved the Task Force recommendation to launch an Indian probe to the Moon. Six months later, in November, the Indian government gave the nod for the mission.
The first phase includes the launch of the first lunar orbiters.
Chandrayaan-1, launched on 22 October 2008 aboard a PSLV-XL rocket, was a big success for ISRO as the Moon Impact Probe, a payload on board the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, discovered water on the Moon. Apart from detecting water the Chandrayaan-1 mission performed several other tasks such as mapping and atmospheric profiling of the Moon.

Phase II: Soft landers and rovers
Chandrayaan-2
The main scientific objective is to map and study the variations in lunar surface composition, as well as the location and abundance of lunar water.

On 18 September 2008, the First Manmohan Singh Cabinet approved the mission. Although ISRO finalised the payload for Chandrayaan-2 per schedule, the mission was postponed in January 2013 and rescheduled to 2016 because Russia was unable to develop the lander on time. Roscosmos later withdrew in wake of the failure of the Fobos-Grunt mission to Mars, since the technical aspects connected with the Fobos-Grunt mission were also used in the lunar projects, which needed to be reviewed. When Russia cited its inability to provide the lander even by 2015, India decided to develop the lunar mission independently and unused orbiter hardware was repurposed to be used for Mars Orbiter Mission.
Although ISRO finalised the payload for Chandrayaan-2 on schedule, the mission was postponed in January 2013 and rescheduled to 2016 because Russia was unable to develop the lander on time. In 2012, there was a delay in the construction of the Russian lander for Chandrayaan-2 due of the failure of the Fobos-Grunt mission to Mars, since the technical issues connected with the Fobos-Grunt mission which were also used in the lunar projects including the lander for Chandrayaan-2 needed to be reviewed. The changes proposed by Roscosmos necessitated increase in lander mass and required ISRO to decrease mass of its rover and accept some reliability risk. When Russia cited its inability to provide the lander even by a revised time-frame of 2015 due to technical and financial reasons, India decided to develop the lunar mission independently. With new mission timeline for Chandrayaan-2 and an opportunity for a Mars mission arising with launch window in 2013, unused Chandrayaan-2 orbiter hardware was repurposed to be used for Mars Orbiter Mission.

Chandrayaan-2 launch had been scheduled for March 2018 initially, but was first delayed to April and then to October 2018 to conduct further tests on the vehicle. On 19 June 2018, after the program’s fourth Comprehensive Technical Review meeting, a number of changes in configuration and landing sequence were planned for implementation which increased the gross lift-off mass of spacecraft from 3,250 kg to 3,850 kg. Initially an uprated GSLV Mk II was the chosen launch vehicle for Chandrayaan-2 but this increased spacecraft mass and issues with launch vehicle upratement forced the launch vehicle to be switched to more capable LVM3. Issues with engine throttling were found during testing pushing the launch to the early 2019 and later two of the lander’s legs received minor damage during one of the tests in February 2019 delaying the launch even further.
It was scheduled for 14 July 2019, 21:21 UTC (15 July 2019 at 02:51 IST local time), with the landing expected on 6 September 2019. However, the launch was aborted due to a technical glitch and was rescheduled.The launch occurred on 22 July 2019 at 09:13:12 UTC (14:43:12 IST) on the first operational flight of a GSLV MK III M1.

On 6 September 2019, the lander during its landing phase, deviated from its intended trajectory starting at 2.1 km (1.3 mi) altitude, and had lost communication when touchdown confirmation was expected. Initial reports suggesting a crash were confirmed by ISRO chairman K. Sivan, stating that “it must have been a hard landing”. The Failure Analysis Committee concluded that the crash was caused by a software glitch. Unlike ISRO’s previous record, the report of the Failure Analysis Committee has not been made public.
Chandrayaan-2 orbiter performed a collision avoidance manoeuvre at 14:52 UTC on 18 October 2021 to avert possible conjunction with Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Both spacecraft were expected to come dangerously close to each other on 20 October 2021 at 05:45 UTC over the Lunar North pole.

Chandrayaan-3
In November 2019, ISRO officials stated that a new lunar lander mission was being studied for launch in November 2020. This new proposal is called Chandrayaan-3 and it would be a re-attempt to demonstrate the landing capabilities needed for the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission proposed in partnership with Japan for 2025. This spacecraft configuration would not include launching an orbiter and would have a lander, rover, and a propulsion module with mission costing ₹ 250 crore with additional launch costs of ₹ 365 crore for LVM3. This third mission would land in the same area as the second one. Chandrayaan-3 was launched on 14 July 2023 at 9:05:17. The primary goals of the Chandrayaan-3 mission encompass three key aspects. Firstly, it aims to showcase a successful and controlled touchdown on the lunar surface. Secondly, it intends to demonstrate the mobility of a rover on the Moon’s terrain. Lastly, it seeks to carry out scientific experiments directly on the lunar surface.
The lander and rover of Chandrayaan-3 landed near the lunar south pole region on 23 August 2023.
Getting a lander to land safely and softly on the surface of the Moon.
Observing and demonstrating the rover’s driving capabilities on the Moon.
Conducting and observing experiments on the materials available on the lunar surface to better understand the composition of the Moon.

Chandrayaan-3 comprised three main components:
Propulsion module
The propulsion module carries the lander and rover configuration to a 100 kilometres (62 mi) lunar orbit. It is a box-like structure with a large solar panel mounted on one side and a cylindrical mounting structure for the lander (the Intermodular Adapter Cone) on top.[9][8] Lander
The Vikram lander is responsible for the soft landing on the Moon. It is also box-shaped, with four landing legs and four landing thrusters capable of producing 800 newtons of thrust each. It carries the rover and various scientific instruments to perform on-site analysis.
The lander for Chandrayaan-3 has four variable-thrust engines with slew rate changing capabilities, unlike Chandrayaan-2’s lander, which had five, with the fifth one being centrally mounted and capable only of fixed thrust. One of the main reasons for Chandrayaan-2 landing failure, attitude increase during the camera coasting phase, was removed by allowing the lander to control attitude and thrust during all phases of descent. Attitude correction rate is increased from Chandrayaan-2’s 10°/s to 25°/s with Chandrayaan-3. Additionally, the Chandrayaan-3 lander will be equipped with a Laser Doppler Velocimeter (LDV) to allow measuring attitude in 3 directions. The impact legs have been made stronger compared to Chandrayaan-2 and instrumentation redundancy has been improved. It will target a more precise 4 km (2.5 mi) by 4 km (2.5 mi) landing region based on images previously provided by the Orbiter High-Resolution Camera (OHRC) onboard Chandrayaan-2’s orbiter. ISRO improved the structural rigidity, increased polling in instruments, increased data frequency and transmission, and added additional multiple contingency systems to improve lander survivability in the event of failures during descent and landing.
Rover
The Pragyan rover is a six-wheeled vehicle with a mass of 26 kilograms (57 pounds). It is 917 millimetres (3.009 ft) x 750 millimetres (2.46 ft) x 397 millimetres (1.302 ft) in size.
The rover is expected to take multiple measurements to support research into the composition of the lunar surface, the presence of water ice in the lunar soil, the history of lunar impacts, and the evolution of the Moon’s atmosphere.

Lander
Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) will measure the thermal conductivity and temperature of the lunar surface.
Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) will measure the seismicity around the landing site.
Langmuir Probe (LP) will estimate near-surface plasma density over time.

Rover
Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) will derive the chemical composition and infer mineralogical composition of the lunar surface.
Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) will determine the elemental composition (Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, Fe) of lunar soil and rocks around the lunar landing site.

Propulsion module
Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) will study spectral and polarimetric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit in the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength range (1–1.7 μm [3.9×10−5–6.7×10−5 in]).

Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APSX)

Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE)
Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA)
Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS)
Langmuir Probe (RAMBHA-LP)
Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE)

Chandrayaan-3 was launched aboard an LVM3-M4 rocket on 14 July 2023, at 2:35 pm IST from Satish Dhawan Space Centre Second Launch Pad in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, India, entering an Earth parking orbit with a perigee of 170 km (106 mi) and an apogee of 36,500 km (22,680 mi).

Orbit
After a series of manoeuvres that placed Chandrayaan-3 in a trans-lunar injection orbit, ISRO performed a lunar-orbit insertion (LOI) on 5 August, successfully placing the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into orbit around the Moon. The LOI operation was carried out from the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Network (ISTRAC) located in Bengaluru.

On 17 August, the Vikram lander separated from the propulsion module to begin the last phase of the mission.

Descent
On 23 August 2023, as the lander approached the low point of its orbit, its four engines fired as a braking manoeuvre at 30 kilometres (19 mi) above the Moon’s surface. After 11.5 minutes, the lander was 7.2 km (4.5 miles) above the surface; it maintained its altitude for about 10 seconds, then stabilized itself using eight smaller thrusters and rotated from a horizontal to a vertical position while continuing its descent.
It then used two of its four engines to slow its descent to roughly 150 metres (490 ft); it hovered there for about 30 seconds before continuing downward and touching down at 12:32 UTC.

Phase IV
The next mission will be the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission or Chandrayaan-4, suggested to be launched in a time frame of 2026-28. India is collaborating with Japan in this mission but the mission is not yet defined. It will be a lander-rover mission near lunar pole to perform on site sampling and analysis of collected lunar material and demonstrate lunar night survival technologies.

FUTURE INDIAN SPACE MISSION PLANNED
ADITYA-L1Home /Activities/ Science /ADITYA-L1
Aditya L1 shall be the first space based Indian mission to study the Sun. The spacecraft shall be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, which is about 1.5 million km from the Earth. A satellite placed in the halo orbit around the L1 point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/eclipses. This will provide a greater advantage of observing the solar activities and its effect on space weather in real time. The spacecraft carries seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) using electromagnetic and particle and magnetic field detectors. Using the special vantage point L1, four payloads directly view the Sun and the remaining three payloads carry out in-situ studies of particles and fields at the Lagrange point L1, thus providing important scientific studies of the propagatory effect of solar dynamics in the interplanetary medium
The suits of Aditya L1 payloads are expected to provide most crucial informations to understand the problem of coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities and their characteristics, dynamics of space weather, propagation of particle and fields etc.

Science Objectives:
The major science objectives of Aditya-L1 mission are:
Study of Solar upper atmospheric (chromosphere and corona) dynamics.
Study of chromospheric and coronal heating, physics of the partially ionized plasma, initiation of the coronal mass ejections, and flares
Observe the in-situ particle and plasma environment providing data for the study of particle dynamics from the Sun.
Physics of solar corona and its heating mechanism.
Diagnostics of the coronal and coronal loops plasma: Temperature, velocity and density.
Development, dynamics and origin of CMEs.
Identify the sequence of processes that occur at multiple layers (chromosphere, base and extended corona) which eventually leads to solar eruptive events.
Magnetic field topology and magnetic field measurements in the solar corona .
Drivers for space weather (origin, composition and dynamics of solar wind .
Aditya-L1 Payloads: The instruments of Aditya-L1 are tuned to observe the solar atmosphere mainly the chromosphere and corona. In-situ instruments will observe the local environment at L1. There are total seven payloads on-board with four of them carrying out remote sensing of the Sun and three of them carrying in-situ observation.

NISAR
NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) is a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) observatory being jointly developed by NASA and ISRO. NISAR will map the entire globe in 12 days and provide spatially and temporally consistent data for understanding changes in Earth’s ecosystems, ice mass, vegetation biomass, sea level rise, ground water and natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides. NISAR. It carries L and S dual band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), which operates with Sweep SAR technique to achieve large swath with high resolution data. The SAR payloads mounted on Integrated Radar Instrument Structure (IRIS) and the spacecraft bus are together called an observatory. Jet Propulsion Laboratories and ISRO are realizing the observatory which shall not only meet the respective national needs but also will feed the science community with data encouraging studies related to surface deformation measurements through repeat-pass InSAR technique.

This flagship partnership would have major contributions from both agencies. NASA is responsible for providing the L-Band SAR payload system in which the ISRO supplied S-Band SAR payload and both these SAR systems will make use of a large size (about 12m diameter) common unfurl able reflector antenna . In addition, NASA would provide engineering payloads for the mission, including a Payload Data Subsystem, High-rate Science Downlink System, GPS receivers and a Solid State Recorder.

This would be the first dual frequency radar imaging mission in L-Band & S-Band using an advanced Sweep SAR technique to provide L & S band space-borne SAR data with high repeat cycle, high resolution, and larger swath, with capability of full-polar metric and interferometric modes of operation. It will provide a means of disentangling and clarifying spatially and temporally complex phenomena, ranging from ecosystem disturbances, to ice sheet collapse and natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and landslide This is expected to provide impetus to the fast maturing microwave remote sensing applications in geosciences. The precision interferometric orbits of the mission will enable in mapping few millimetres of deformations in the land surface. The selection of lower frequency bands will cater to the need for better characterization of vegetation, which is vital for global carbon stock estimation and monitoring of carbon fluxes from vegetation. Similarly, the selection of L- and S-band frequencies will enable characterizing targets beneath tree canopy and sub-surface features due to differential penetration of the signals in two frequency NISAR studying concepts for a Synthetic Aperture Radar mission is to determine Earth change in three disciplines: ecosystems (vegetation and the carbon cycle), deformation (solid Earth studies), and cryosphere sciences (primarily as related to climatic drivers and effects on sea level NISAR will acquire data over the Indian Coasts and monitor annual changes in the bathymetry along the deltaic regions. The shoreline and the erosion accretion also will be monitored. The NISAR mission will observe sea ice characteristics over the seas surrounding India’s Antarctic polar stations, can be used to detect the marine oil spill and disseminate the spill location during accidental oil seepage for preventive measures.

The NISAR observatory carries a 12m wide deployable mesh reflector mounted onto a deployable 9m boom developed by JPL which shall be used by both-JPL-NASA developed L-Band SAR payload system and ISRO developed S-Band SAR payload. The IRIS hosts the S-SAR and L-SAR tiles along with their electronics and data handling systems. The spacecraft incorporates all the attitude and orbit control elements, power systems, thermal management system. JPL also will provide the LSAR Data Handling system, High-rate Science data Downlink System, GPS receivers and a Solid State Recorder. ISRO is responsible for providing the SSAR data handling system, High rate downlink system, spacecraft bus systems, the GSLV launch system and Mission Operations Related Services. A perfect blend of two cultures and a creation by two sets of craftsmen is what NISAR is.
NISAR is being developed in three different phases . The SIT-2 phase during which the SAR payloads and the Engineering Systems shall be independently developed in their respective soils. SIT-3 phase is when the SAR payload along with other related systems will get integrated to the Radar Instrument Structure and tested at JPL. Parallel activities of the spacecraft systems realization and testing is carried out at ISRO. The subsequent activities of integrating IRIS with the spacecraft and evaluating it as observatory is carried out at ISRO. This phase is called the SIT-4 phase which is the on-going phase now. The IRIS is ready to be shipped from JPL and spacecraft is getting ready to receive its counterpart. The SIT-4 testing phase is going to be very elaborate and critical as the performance evaluation of the entire observatory is planned during this phase. The NISAR observatory shall be launched from Indian Soil in the first quarter of year 2024 and the science community is surely to benefit from the data generated.

SPADEX
SPADEX is the shortened form of space docking experiment. This mission involves a twin spacecraft system that aims to strengthen technologies for orbital rendezvous, docking, formation flying with scope of application in human spaceflight, in space satellite servicing and other proximity operations.
Mission cost is projected at Rs 124.44 crores. The launch is scheduled for the third quarter of 2024.

MANGALAYAN 2
Also called the Mars Orbiter mission 2 will be an inter planetary mission by ISRO with a planned launch date in 2024. As per ISRO documents the mission will carry a hyperspectral camera, a high resolution panchromatic camera and a radar to understand early Maritian crust, recent basalt and boulder falls.
There are currently plans to follow MANGALAYAN 2 by another mission which includes a plan for soft landing on Mars in 2030.

GAGANAYAN 1&2
GAGANAYAN, India’s own crewed orbital spacecraft, envisages demonstration of human space flight capability by launching crew of 3 members to an orbit of 400 KM for a 3 day mission and bring them back safely to earth by landing in Indian sea waters.
The project is a collaboration between ISRO and HAL. GAGANAYAN is the basic foundation on which on India’s space flight programme is being planned.

GAGANAYAN 3
It would be India’s first space mission.

SHUKRAYAAN 1
It is the ISRO’S interplanetary mission to VENUS

INDIAN SPACE TOURISM
ISRO says that India’s space tourism journey is on track and by 2030 one can embark on space tourism by paying just 600 lakhs.