15 May 2024

GS 3 : [Science &  Tech : Space Tech]

ISRO chairperson S Somanath has planned to launch Chandrayaan 4 to bring back samples from the Moon in four years.

Chandrayaan 4: A Next Moon Mission

• After Chandrayaan- 3’s success and Aditya-L1 launch, ISRO aims to bring back moon samples with Chandrayaan-4 in approximately four years.
• ISRO chairperson S Somanath shared this vision while discussing the space agency’s Vision 2047.
• About Chandrayaan 4 Mission:
• It is a lunar sample return mission that will land and thereafter be able to bring back the sample of the lunar surface.
• Rover: This mission is expected to be more complex than its predecessor, Chandrayaan-3 which had a rover of 30 kg and Chandrayaan-4 plans to land a massive 350 kg rover. 
• The rover will have an exploration area of 1 km x 1 km which is significantly larger than Chandrayaan-3’s 500 meters x 500 meters.
• Landing on the Moon: The Chandrayaan 4 mission aims to perform a precise landing on the Moon’s rim (area yet to be explored).

Space Agency Vision 2047:

• Space faring nation: India to look at space as a “strategic asset” of the country aiming to  become a world-leading space-faring nation by 2047.
• Roadmap: S. Somanath mentioned four levels the country needs to succeed i.e. strategic, spacecraft, innovation and exploration. 
• Space parks, space tourism, global space data solution, global space manufacturing hub, and space mining.

NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar)

• NISAR is a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) observatory jointly developed by NASA and ISRO. 
• It is an SUV-size satellite weighing 2,800 kilograms.
• NISAR will be the first satellite mission to use two different radar frequencies (L-band and S-band) to measure changes in our planet's surface.
• SAR is capable of penetrating clouds and can collect data day and night regardless of the weather conditions.
• Mission Objectives:
• It will measure Earth’s changing ecosystems, dynamic surfaces, and ice masses, providing information about biomass, natural hazards, sea level rise, and groundwater.
• NISAR will observe Earth’s land and ice-covered surfaces globally with 12-day regularity on ascending and descending passes.