India is starting to emerge as a true space power. It is the fourth country in the world to send spacecraft to the moon. Its ambitions do not end there.
India shows no signs of slowing down in implementing its goals cosmic ambitions. The government recently approved four key space projects that are intended to strengthen the country’s position as a major space exploration powerhouse. The government’s budget for these projects is $2.7 billion, and investments include a return mission to the moon, construction of a space station module and the first mission to Venus.
India will return to the Moon
The moon is in the sights of the world’s biggest space superpowers. Both the United States and China have their sights set on sending a crew to the surface of the Silver Globeand in the future, building special habitats there. These ambitions are also shared by India. One of the main projects approved by the government is misja Chandrayaan-4, which involves returning to the Moon. The mission has been allocated $253 million (Rs 21 billion) for this purpose. The mission aims to collect samples from the region around the Moon’s south pole, including the landing site of the previous mission Chandrayaan-3 – known as the Shiv Shakti point.
Planned Misja Chandrayaan-4 will be a complex operation, requiring the launch of four modules using two LVM-3 rockets. The first rocket will deliver a lander to the Moon and a sample collection vehicle, which will land on the edge of a selected crater near the south pole. The second rocket will deliver a transfer module and a return module, which will remain in lunar orbit. After collecting samples, the launch vehicle will lift off from the lunar surface, transport the samples to the return module, and the return module will return to Earth.
The mission’s engineers face serious technical challenges, including the challenge of launching from the lunar surface and returning it safely to Earth. As Anil Bhardwaj, director of the Gujarat Physical Research Laboratory, who is involved in many of India’s planetary missions, points out: “The challenge of launching a vehicle on the moon and returning it to Earth is a complex engineering problem.”
Own space station: India does not want to be dependent on the US and China
India is not only focused on lunar exploration. The government has also approved funding for the construction of the first module of the Indian space station called Indian Antariksh Station (BAS). Module named BAS-1 is to be fired to low Earth orbit (LEO) by December 2028. The entire station is expected to be fully operational by 2035. This project is a key element of India’s future strategy as it will enable long-term space missions and the development of manned space expeditions, including a manned mission to the Moon, which India plans to complete by 2040.
Not only the Moon, but also Venus
One of India’s next ambitious projects is mission to Venusknown as Thank youThe government has approved $147 million (12.36 billion rupees) for the purpose, but the launch of the mission has been postponed to March 2028, five years later than originally planned. Thank you will be equipped with a suite of scientific instruments that will provide data on the atmosphere, geology, and evolution of Venus. This mission will answer the question of why Venus, despite being similar in size and initial conditions to Earth, evolved in such a different way.
India is also developing a new generation of rockets that will enable manned lunar missions and the construction of a space station. The development of the rocket Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV) $994 million (82.4 billion rupees) has been allocated. The NGLV will have a payload capacity three times greater than the current LVM-3 rocket and will have a reusable first stage, which is expected to reduce the cost of access to space.
Premier Narendra-Modi He stressed that the development of the NGLV rocket will bring India closer to building a space station and achieving manned landings on the Moon by 2040.
Grafika: ISRO/Twitter
Source: antyweb.pl
