Sridhara Somanath, president of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), has announced plans to return soil samples from the lunar surface to Earth around 2028.
It informs about this3dnews.ru:the
This mission will require two launches, because India does not have enough powerful rockets on which it will be possible to place all the necessary devices, he noted.
If everything succeeds, then India will become the fourth country after the USSR, the USA and China, which will bring soil samples from the Moon to the Earth. It should be noted that only 21 billion rupees (about 250 million dollars) have been allocated for the project.
Sending a rover to the Moon as part of the Chandrayaan-3 mission cost the country $74 million. The Chandrayaan-4 mission will require two separate launches. One of the rockets will carry the transition module and capsule, which will deliver samples taken from the Moon to Earth, and the other will carry the lander and return module, which will go into lunar orbit after collecting samples and attach to the transition module. In orbit, the prototypes will be placed in a lander and then flown back to Earth. India is yet to test the technology for attaching the modules in Earth orbit, which is expected either by the end of this year or in 2025. The Japanese agency JAXA creates a lunar rover, and the Indian ISRO ensures its delivery to the moon.
