Page 3 - Lunar Mission

Aim for space station by 2035, India on Moon by 2040: PM Modi to scientists

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked scientists to aim to send the first Indian to the Moon by 2040 and set up an Indian space station by 2035, according to an official statement. He gave these directions during a meeting to review the preparedness of the Gaganyaan mission and the first demonstration flight of the crew escape system test vehicle scheduled for October 21. "The meeting evaluated the mission's readiness, affirming its launch in 2025," the statement said. During the meeting, the prime minister outlined the future of India's space exploration endeavours and urged scientists to work towards interplanetary missions, including a Venus Orbiter Mission and a Mars Lander. "Building on the success of Indian space initiatives, including the recent Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L1 missions, the prime minister directed that India should now aim for new and ambitious goals, including setting up 'Bharatiya Antariksha Station' (Indian space station) by 2035 and sending first ..

To the Moon and back: On Artemis III mission, Nasa astronauts to wear Prada

Artemis III: As the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in December 1972, the mission will also be the first to place a woman on the Moon

China's 2024 lunar mission Chang'e-6 to carry payload from Pakistan

China's next lunar mission scheduled for 2024 will also carry a payload from Pakistan, the country's space agency has said, as the two all-weather friends step up their cooperation in the space sector. The Chang'e-6 lunar mission is currently undergoing research and development work as planned, state-run news agency Xinhua reported on Friday quoting China National Space Administration (CNSA). The Chang'e-6 mission, with the launch scheduled for around 2024, is tasked with bringing back samples from the far side of the moon. To date, all 10 lunar sampling missions conducted by humans have taken place on the near side of the moon, The Global Times newspaper reported. The far side is generally older and contains the Aitken Basin, one of the three major lunar landforms, making it of significant scientific value, the report said, quoting CNSA. The Chang'e-6 mission aims at landing the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side to explore and collect lunar samples from different regions and

Top Chinese scientist claims India's moon landing nowhere near south pole

On Earth, 69 degrees south would be within the Antarctic Circle, but the lunar version of the circle is much closer to the pole

Isro's achievement has made every Indian proud: Om Birla on lunar mission

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday said the decision to mark August 23 as 'National Space Day' will inspire future generations to set high goals in life and to work hard to realise them. He also welcomed the naming of the footprint of Chandrayaan-2 on the Moon as 'Tiranga Point', and the landing site of Chandrayaan-3 as 'Shiv Shakti Point'. He felt that these names are a tribute to India's age-old heritage as well as a symbol of its scientific ambitions and efforts. In his opening remarks during a discussion in the Lok Sabha on the success of Chandrayaan-3 mission and other achievements of the nation in the space sector, he said the stupendous achievement of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has made every Indian proud and the nation's stature has increased at the global level. Noting that India has dedicated the success of Chandrayaan-3 to the world's scientific community and all of humanity, Birla said the valuable information sent by Pragyan rover from the Moon .

Aditya L1 takes STEPS to collect info on energetic particles from space

After India's solar mission Aditya L1 began its journey towards Lagrange point 1 following a key manoeuvre, it has started studying energetic particles in the solar wind from space, and will continue to do so for the rest of its life, a senior astrophysicist said. The study of the solar wind, the continuous flow of charged particles from the sun which permeates the solar system, will be carried out with the help of a device named Supra Thermal & Energetic Particle Spectrometer (STEPS), a part of the Aditya Solar wind Particle EXperiment (ASPEX) payload. STEPS is now working from space. However, it was not sitting idle earlier. It has started functioning from within the magnetic field of the Earth since September 10 when Aditya was 52,000 kilometres above our planet, Dr Dibyendu Chakrabarty, professor of Space and Atmospheric Sciences at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) said. STEPS was developed by the PRL with support from the Space Application Centre (SAC) in ...

Isro's Chandrayaan-3 space journey to be discussed in Rajya Sabha today

With the success of 'Chandrayaan-3', India also became the first country to have placed a lander on the moon's hitherto unexplored south pole

Moon mission, G20, cricket World Cup…great year for India: UK PM Sunak

In India, just this year, the moon mission, what an extraordinary success, this G20, which is going to be a huge success and, of course, said British PM

Vikram lander makes soft-landing, successfully undergoes hop test: Isro

ISRO on Monday said the Vikram lander successfully underwent a hop test when it made the soft-landing again on the lunar surface. On command it (Vikram lander) fired the engines, elevated itself by about 40 cm as expected and landed safely at a distance of 30 to 40 cm away, ISRO said in an update on 'X'. Noting that the Vikram lander exceeded its mission objectives, ISRO said the importance of the exercise was that this 'kick-start' enthuses future sample return and human missions. "Vikram soft-landed on the moon, again! Vikram Lander exceeded its mission objectives. It successfully underwent a hop experiment. On command, it fired the engines, elevated itself by about 40 cm as expected and landed safely at a distance of 30-40 cm away," ISRO said in a post. "Importance?: This 'kick-start' enthuses future sample return and human missions! All systems performed nominally and are healthy. Deployed Ramp, ChaSTE and ILSA were folded back and redeployed successfully after the experiment,"

Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft successfully undergoes last Moon-bound maneouvre

India's ambitious third Moon mission's spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 on Wednesday successfully underwent a fifth and final Moon-bound orbit maneouvre, bringing it even closer to the lunar surface. With this, the spacecraft has completed its lunar-bound maneouvres and it will now prepare for the propulsion module and the lander module separation, ISRO said. "Today's successful firing, needed for a short duration, has put Chandrayaan-3 into an orbit of 153 km x 163 km, as intended. With this, the lunar bound maneuvres are completed.It's time for preparations as the Propulsion Module and the Lander Module gear up for their separate journeys," the national space agency tweeted. Separation of the lander module from the propulsion module of the spacecraft is planned for August 17, it said. Post its launch on July 14, Chandrayaan-3 entered into the lunar orbit on August 5, following which three successive orbit reduction maneouvres were carried out on August 6, 9 and 14 to move closer to the .

Chandrayaan-3: Pragyan rover completes its assignments, set into sleep mode

Chandrayaan-3's rover ramped down from the Vikram lander to the lunar surface on August 25

Sunshine moment for India: Jitendra Singh hails launch of Aditya-L1

The successful launch of the maiden solar mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) came on the heels of the historic lunar landing mission - Chandrayaan-3

After Moon, Sun, Isro readies mission to enhance understanding in Astronomy

After the launch of Chandrayaan-3 Moon lander and Aditya-L1 ventures, ISRO has readied a mission aimed at enhancing cutting edge scientific understanding in Astronomy. XPoSat (X-ray Polarimeter Satellite) is India's first dedicated polarimetry mission to study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions. The spacecraft will carry two scientific payloads in a low earth orbit. The primary payload POLIX (Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays) will measure the polarimetry parameters (degree and angle of polarization) in medium X-ray energy range of 8-30 keV photons of astronomical origin. The XSPECT (X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing) payload will give spectroscopic information in the energy range of 0.8-15 keV, according to ISRO. "XPoSat is ready for launch," an official of the national space agency headquartered here said on Saturday. According to ISRO, the emission mechanism from various astronomical sources such as blackholes, neutron stars, active galactic

Countdown for India's 1st Sun mission Aditya-L1 begins, to launch tomorrow

The launch of the sun mission is scheduled for Saturday at 1150 IST from the launch pad at Sriharikota, with the launch rehearsal and vehicle internal checks all being completed

Vikram lander's ILSA payload records natural event on lunar surface: Isro

ILSA comprises a cluster of six high-sensitivity accelerometers, which are indigenously fabricated using the Silicon Micromachining process

Chandrayaan-3's Pragyan rover confirms sulphur in lunar region: Isro

Another instrument onboard the Chandrayaan-3 mission's rover 'Pragyan' has confirmed the presence of sulphur in the lunar region by deploying a different technique, ISRO said on Thursday. The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectroscope (APXS) has detected sulphur, as well as other minor elements on the Moon, the Bengaluru-headquartered national space agency said in a social media post. "This finding by Ch-3 compels scientists to develop fresh explanations for the source of Sulphur (S) in the area: intrinsic?, volcanic?, meteoritic?,......?" read the post. ISRO also released a video of the rover rotating in search of a safe route. The rotation was captured by a lander imager camera. "It feels as though a child is playfully frolicking in the yards of Chandamama, while the mother watches affectionately. Isn't it?" ISRO quipped in the social media post. The space agency released a video showing an automated hinge mechanism rotating the 18 cm tall APXS, aligning the detector head to be ...

Chandrayaan-3's Pragyan rover clicks photos of Vikram lander; check here

Chandrayaan-3: Earlier, Isro said that the rover has unambiguously confirmed the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface near the south pole

Isro's Vikram lander observes Moon temperature, records high of 70 deg C

ISRO on Sunday released a graph of the temperature variation on the lunar surface and a senior scientist of the space agency expressed surprise over the high temperature recorded on the Moon. The national space agency said Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) payload onboard Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander measured the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the pole to understand the thermal behaviour of the Moon's surface. "Here are the first observations from the ChaSTE payload onboard Vikram Lander. ChaSTE (Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment) measures the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the pole to understand the thermal behaviour of the moon's surface," ISRO said in an update on social media platform 'X'. Speaking about the graphic illustration, ISRO scientist B H M Darukesha told PTI: "We all believed that the temperature could be somewhere around 20 degree centigrade to 30 degree centigrade on the surface but it is 70 degree ...

Chandrayaan-3 success opens fresh opportunities for our businesses

It is now for the Indian businesses, Isro and other scientific establishments to capitalize on the well-publicized success of Chandrayaan-3

India showed capability by hoisting tricolour on Moon: PM Modi to diaspora

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that India has shown its capability to the world by hoisting the tricolour on the Moon, asserting that its science and technology and innovation are creating a wave globally. Addressing the Indian diaspora in Greece, he also cited several development feats achieved by his government in the last nine years and emphasised that never before has so much investment been made in the infrastructure sector. Over 25 lakh km-long optical fibre cable has been laid in India since 2014 which is, he noted, more than six times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. India has taken indigenous 5G technology to around 700 districts in record time, he said, drawing cheers from the audience. The world's highest-altitude raid bridge and motorable road besides the biggest cricket stadium and the tallest statue are in India now, he said. Top global bodies like the World Bank and the IMF are praising the Indian economy with leading companies vying with eac