Chandrayaan-2 moon mission depends on Russia: ISRO chief

SRIHARIKOTA, INDIA: India's second moon mission will depend on Russia's decision after a failed inter-planetary mission with China, Indian Space Research Organisation chairman, K. Radhakrishnan, said on Sunday, on the momentous occasion of the Indian space agency launching its hundredth mission.

"Russia is reviewing its inter-planetary missions after a failed joint mission with China. For Chandrayaan-2, Russia has to provide the lander. "

"India will build the lunar orbiter and rover. Russia has said they would come to us with a decision after their review," he said.

The Chandrayaan 2 is planned for 2014 with India's heavier rocket — Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

The ISRO chief said that Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) would ready the rocket as well as the lunar orbiter and rover.

While reports are there that the Chandrayaan-2 project might get delayed till 2016, Radhakrishnan did not comment on it.

On its hundredth mission, ISRO Sunday launched the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C21 (PSLV C-21), carrying SPOT 6, a 712-kg French earth observation satellite, and Proiteres, a 15-kg Japanese micro satellite, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

ISRO is now eagerly looking forward to its Mars mission planned for next year.

Ruling out that India was in race with China for the Mars mission, Radhakrishnan said, "Mars mission is a challenging one, where we will develop new technologies."

He said that ISRO was studying the Mars mission since August 2010 and the Union Cabinet had recently approved the project.

He said the Mars mission was much more challenging than the Chandrayaan-1 mission, since it required taking the orbiter from the initial orbit into the Mars orbit, as the distance to be covered was huge.

Radhakrishnan said the other major challenge was tracking the satellite with deep space network. He added that to realize the Mars mission next year, ISRO centres were working hard to perfect the GSLV rocket technology, including the cryogenic engine technology.

On the expansion of facilities at the space port here, Radhakrishnan said ISRO had decided to set up a Multi Object Tracking Radar to track the space debris and to time its rocket launches precisely.

He said ISRO was also planning to have a second vehicle (rocket) assembly building to facilitate increasing launch frequency.

ISRO would build two more communication satellites — GSAT 15 and GSAT 16 — to augment its transponder (transmitters that receive and send signals) capacity.