ISRO holding discussions "internally' on Chandrayaan-4 mission: Chairman S Somanath
Chandrayaan-4 mission and was involved in developing a 'novel design' and 'high-end technology' in this connection, a top official said on Saturday. After successfully launching the Chandrayaan-3 rocket on the south pole of the Moon in August 2023, ISRO has drawn up a more «complex» mission of bringing back the soil from the surface of the Moon to the Earth.
On Saturday, after the successful launch of GSLV-F14/INSAT-3DS satellite, ISRO Chairman S Somanath said the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency wanted to send Chandrayaan 4, 5, 6 and 7 missions, in future, following the success of Chandrayaan-3 mission.
«We are working on what Chandrayaan-4 spacecraft should contain. The first question is what Chandrayaan-4 should be having (as the payload).; this is the question we are asking,» Somanath said.
Observing that the plan was to do something different, he said, «first thing we decided is atleast Chandrayaan-4 should have a sample of Moon's soil which is to be brought back to Earth. We want to do this in a robotic way. So, this is the discussion going on internally.»
«All of us are involved in this discussion on how to do this work with available rockets. You know going to the Moon, bringing back a sample is a very complex work. Not landing there (like Chandrayaan-3 mission). Again another rocket has to take off from the Moon, come back to the Earth and land on Earth which is double the work of what we have done last time,» Somanath said.
«So, our rockets today are not fully capable. So, because of this we are
