"Chandrayaan-2 (an India-Russia collaboration), which was to take off in 2013, has been delayed by the failure of Russian Mars mission Phobos-Grunt. We have, therefore, decided to go ahead with our Mars mission and hope to set off for the red planet on November 26-27," Goswami said.

Former President APJ Abdul Kalam, who inaugurated the ISC's children's science congress, underlined the importance of the project to India's superpower ambitions. "Mars is an international property. We have to undertake the mission to stake our claim on the planet," he said. The first Chinese mission to Mars, Yinghuo-1, failed last year.

Unlike Chandrayaaan-2, Mangalayaan is entirely an Indian mission. Isro's trusted warhorse, the PSLV-XL, will launch the Mars explorer. "We are gearing up for an October-November launch. If we miss this slot then the next one will come only in 2018," Goswami said, adding the prototype payloads were ready and the actual payloads would arrive in the next couple of months.

The Rs 470-crore Mars mission will not only demonstrate India's capability to launch a spacecraft that has to travel 55 million km to 400 million km (depending on the planets' orbital positions) over 299 days, five instruments on board will probe Mars' atmosphere, records of water on the planet's surface and look for methane hotspots.

Space scientists expect a launch date for Chandrayaan-2 only in 2016 as Russian Space Research Institute chief Lev Zelyony has indicated the mission may be postponed by three years to review Phobos-Grunt's failure. Since GSLV will launch Chandrayaan-2 it will carry more instruments, including a lander from Russia. The rover and orbiter will, however, be made indigenously. "After the Mars mission and Chandrayaan-2, India will go for an asteroid orbit and comet flyby in 2018," said Goswami.

Quelle: The Times of India

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New Delhi: Chandrayaan 2, the second mission to moon, could be an Indian programme all the way without any Russian support.

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India to go alone with Chandrayaan 2

Chandrayaan 2, the second mission to the moon, would be an Indian programme, without any tie up with Russia.

Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, V. Narayanasamy, on Wednesday confirmed this in reply to a written question in Rajya Sabha.

Chandrayaan 2 was originally envisaged to be a joint mission between ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) and the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos.

Under the agreement approved by the Central Government in September 2008, while ISRO was to provide for the launch by its workhorse, GSLV, as also the orbiter and the rover, the Russian agency was to provide the lander. The mission was scheduled for the current year.

Following the failure of the Russian-led interplanetary mission, Phobos-Grant, a sample return mission to Phobos, one of the moons of Mars, the Russian agency reviewed their inter-planetary missions and decided to increase the mass of the moon lander.

The Russian agency consequently suggested to ISRO two opportunities for launching of its Chandrayaan 2 rover - either 2015 or 2017 aboard Soyuz, the Russian spacecraft with a rider that the 2015 opportunity could involve mass limitation for the rover and entitle a higher risk.

In the wake of these inputs, the ISRO conducted a high level review of the Chandrayaan 2 programme under the chairmanship of Prof. U.R.Rao. The study recommended that India could itself realise a lander module in a few years and that it could go in for the mission on its own.

In his reply, Mr. Narayanasamy said the details of changes in the configuration and the mission profile were being finalised and the payloads of the lander would be finalised in due course taking into account the weight, volume and power constraints of the lander.

Later speaking to The Hindu, a senior ISRO official said the work on the programme was progressing apace and the mission is likely to take place in three years.

Quelle: The Hindu