ISRO's 5 upcoming missions set to cement India's position as a space power

Isro is planning to reach new milestones in the field of space after the success of Chandrayaan-3. Here are Isro's 5 upcoming projects that will strengthen India's position in the space field

India's Science and Technology minister, Dr Jitendra Singh, informed Parliament's Lower House that India will perform five science missions by the year 2025.

India is cementing its position as a dominant space power and the success of Chandrayaan-3 also boosted Isro's confidence to conquer new frontiers.

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has done 124 space missions, 93 space missions have been launched and many more missions are planned.

Isro's 5 upcoming projects

Here are the 5 space missions Isro is planning to launch in the coming years:

Aditya-L1

India is planning to send its spacecraft to study the Sun. Isro's Aditya-L1 spacecraft will be placed in the halo orbit around Lagrange point 1 of the Sun-Earth system.

The L1 point is around 1.5 million km away from the Sun, the major advantage of placing the spacecraft at the L1 point is that it allows it to view the Sun continuously without any occultations/eclipses. Hence, we can observe solar activities in space weather in real-time. 

Isro will launch its Aditya-L1 spacecraft in early September this year.

X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat)

X-ray Polarimeter Satellite or XPoSat is a planned mission by Isro to study the dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions.

The satellite will study the 50 brightest known sources in the universe such as pulsars, active galactic nuclei, black hole X-ray binaries, and non-thermal supernova remnants.

According to the Isro website, space-based observatories share immense information about the spectroscopic and timing, but the exact nature of the emission from such sources still poses deeper challenges to astronomers.

NISAR

The joint project of Nasa and Isro to develop and launch a dual-frequency synthetic aperture radar satellite called NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR). This satellite will be used for remote sensing and this will be the first dual-brand radar imaging satellite.

Isro's website says NISAR will map the entire world in just 12 days and share information to understand changes in the ecosystem of the earth, ice mass, vegetation biomass, groundwater, and natural hazards such as tsunamis, earthquakes, landslides, and volcanoes.

The NISAR satellite is expected to launch in January 2024.

Gaganyaan 1 and Gaganyaan 2

Gaganyaan, which is an Indian crewed orbital spacecraft, is intended to be the basis of the Indian Human Spaceflight programme. 

Isro developed Gaganyaan to carry three people and the upgraded version will be equipped with the capability of rendezvous and docking. Isro will conduct two flight tests before launching its first-ever crewed mission with Gaganyaan-3.

Gaganyaan-1 and Gaganyaan-2 are expected to launch by the end of this year and in the mid of next year, respectively.

Shukrayaan-1

Another major development by Isro is Shukrayaan, which is India's Venus orbiter mission, and the mission aims to understand the atmosphere of Venus.

The area of interest for the mission includes stratigraphy and re-surfacing processes of surface/subsurface and re-surfacing processes, then it will study atmospheric chemistry and the study of solar irradiance and solar wind interaction with the ionosphere of Venus.

These are Isro's 5 upcoming missions that will strengthen India's position in the field of Space.