Nov 7, 2022, Dehradun: Following missions to the Moon and Mars, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) would like to return to Mars with another mission, but the focus, for the time being, is on Venus. Venus, known as the mysterious twin of Earth, is an excellent case study for understanding how climate change is affecting planetary systems.
Anil Bhardwaj, Director of the Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory, shared the information that the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) plans to explore the dark side of the moon and is in talks with Japan’s space agency JAXA to launch a lander-rover combination at the Akash Tattva conference in Dehradun.
The Indian space agency is preparing to launch a mission to the moon. The Chandrayaan-3 mission will launch in 2023, following in the footsteps of the Chandrayaan-2 mission. In the meantime, ISRO wishes to explore the Moon’s Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSR), which experts believe are time capsules containing numerous secrets.
Bhardwaj stated that it was in talks with the Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) about sending a lunar rover to explore the permanent shadow region. According to preliminary plans, the lunar lander and rover will be built by ISRO and launched into orbit by a Japanese rocket, with a planned landing near the south pole of the moon.
“The rover will then travel to the permanent shadow region of the moon which never sees sunlight,” Bhardwaj said.
He said the exploration of the region was interesting as anything that has remained in the PSR zone was akin to staying in deep freeze for times immemorial.
Meanwhile, Bhardwaj stated that Isro is working on the Aditya L-1 mission, in which a 400-kg class satellite carrying the payload would be placed in an orbit around the Sun in such a way that it could view the star continuously from a point known as the Lagrange Point L-1. The orbit would be 1.5 million kilometers from Earth and would attempt to comprehend coronal heating, solar wind acceleration, and the initiation of coronal mass ejection, flares, and near-Earth space weather.
Bhardwaj stated that the Aditya L-1 and Chandrayaan-3 missions would be prioritized as early as next year and that they would be followed by the missions to Venus and the moon with JAXA.
