Chandrayaan-4, India’s next Moon mission will follow a new approach to launch and assembly of the mission’s scientific instruments. According to the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) website, these parts of the mission will be stacked and assembled in space to help India overcome payload limitations.
The mission will also demonstrate advanced in-space docking and transfer capabilities to achieve significant savings in mission cost for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Chandrayaan-4 was announced on September 18 with an aim to develop and demonstrate technologies that can successfully land on the moon surface and bring back moon samples to Earth for scientific analysis. The government allocated ₹2104.06 crore for the mission and set a timeline of 36 months for completion.
News agency ANI reported that “the cost includes spacecraft development and realisation, two launch vehicle missions of LVM3, external deep space network support and conducting special tests for design validation, finally leading to the mission of landing on the moon’s surface and safe return to Earth along with the collected lunar sample”.
How different is Chandrayaan-4 from previous moon missions?
The mission’s new modular design and in-space assembly technique marks a significant advancement in India’s space missions. It will have five distinct modules namely – Propulsion Module (PM), Ascender Module (AM), Descender Module (DM), Transfer Module (TM), and Re-entry Module (RM). These components will be launched in two separate LVM3 launch vehicles.
The first launch vehicle will carry Stack-1 comprising Ascender Module (AM) and Descender Module (DM) for landing in lunar surface and collecting moon surface samples.
The second launch will carry Stack-2 – with Propulsion, Transfer, and Re-entry Module to bring the collected samples back to Earth.
Once both the stacks reach the Earth’s elliptical orbit, a complex docking manoeuvre will be performed to integrate them into a single spacecraft.
The final assembled unit will use the propulsion module to execute Earth-bound manoeuvres and discard the depleted part. Remaining parts of the stack will navigate to the lunar orbit and land at a predetermined site. The Descender and Ascender module will help to perform a controlled soft-landing on moon surface.
After landing, the robotic arm will collect 2 to 3 kg of lunar soil samples and also perform drilling to gather subsurface materials. The collected samples will be stored inside the Ascender module to prevent contamination.
Post sample collection, the Ascender Module will lift off and dock with Transfer and Re-entry modules. The samples will then be transferred to the Re-entry Module for the journey back to Earth.
(With inputs from isro.gov.in)