India aims to bring moon soil by 2027, buoyed by success of Chandrayaan-3

If successful, India will join an elite club of countries to have brought the lunar soil, after the US, the erstwhile Soviet Union, and most recently China.

Underlining this commitment on Friday, S. Somanath, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), said that the premier space agency will also start launching the first modules of India’s own space station by 2028, and operate no-debris satellites by avoiding collisions by 2030.

Somanath, along with the Union minister of state in the department of space, Jitendra Singh, were speaking at the maiden celebration of the National Space Day in New Delhi on Friday. The National Space Day was announced last year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 Moon mission near the lunar south pole region.

Marking the occasion, Isro also published its key scientific achievements in Nature-a British peer-reviewed journal, on 21 August.

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“We have steadily made progress as a space-faring nation since the inception of our space programme in 1969. Now, India is looking to go beyond its soft landing by bringing back lunar soil for further experiments during the Chandrayaan-4 mission, which we have targeted for 2027. We’re also working on the first modules of the Bharatiya Antariksha Station (Indian Space Station) by 2028, and by 2030, we’ll look to make sure that we do not pollute space and avoid all collisions by ensuring that our decommissioned satellites fall back on the earth," Somanath said.

Speaking about the scientific achievements published in Nature, Anil Prabhakar, director of department of space (DoS)-affiliated Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), said, “One of the key achievements of Chandrayaan-3 was in measuring the chemical constituency of the lunar south pole region. Our mission was among the first to study at close observation the Aitken basin, which is the largest-known crater in the solar system."

Somanath added that the studies “are directed at better understanding our moon, including understanding its origin—and how it has evolved over time."

Going forward, Isro’s list of projects include an ambitious goal to make a manned landing on the moon. “The Gaganyaan mission is progressing at a steady pace, and Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla will lead us in our manned space mission by 2040. The first unmanned trials of Gaganyaan will begin by the end of this year," Somanath said.

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The minister further said that India’s space capabilities “leave the door open for international collaborations with the US and others as necessary, but we have developed indigenous end-to-end capabilities through Isro that have ensured that our cost per space mission is the lowest in the world."

Singh also said that a ₹1,000-crore space venture capital fund, which was announced on 23 July in the Union budget, is being worked upon at a ministerial level. “Going forward, multiple stakeholders will evaluate the sectors and entities that will benefit from the fund, and a professional fund manager will be appointed to handle it. We will also evaluate how the government, including Isro, can play its role in promoting the private sector," he said.

India’s space journey’s breakthrough came with Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma’s spaceflight aboard Soyuz-T11 in April 1984, which was part of the erstwhile Soviet space programme. Interestingly, India’s team of four astronauts also received initial training at Russia’s Roscosmos, before further training in India. Since the inception, India’s biggest achievements apart from the above-mentioned Chandrayaan series was Mangalyaan—which made India the first Asian nation to orbit Mars, and the only nation to achieve it in its first attempt.

Last month, Somanath said that Isro was in the process of improving its indigenous capabilities, too. “We recognize many areas of improvement—for instance, we need a new heavy launcher that will cater to Gaganyaan as well as our space station. To do this, a technical design and financing model for Isro’s Next-Gen Launch Vehicle (NGLV), has already been prepared," he said.

The NGLV, showcased in Delhi on Friday, could be developed under a public-private partnership model, top Isro executives said, which could bolster the private space sector in India. The minister underlined that India is now home to 300 space startups across various domains.

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