India has greenlit four major space projects, including the Chandrayaan-4 moon sample return mission, a Venus orbiter and the nations first space station module.
The Indian government allocated $2.7 billion for the ambitious projects, a substantial investment that officials say is certain to encourage “maximum participation” from the nation’s burgeoning private sector.
“India’s ambitious space vision and roadmap have now been given the wings to fly high,” ISRO chairman S. Somanath told Indian news channel NDTV.
The $2.7 billion was approved on Wednesday (Sept. 18) by the nation’s cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The funds include $253 million (21 billion rupees) for India’s return to the moon with the Chandrayaan-4 mission, which aims to collect an unspecified mass of samples at Shiv Shakti Point, the landing site of the now-dormant Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft near the lunar south pole. The region is of much interest to spacefaring nations thanks to its apparent abundance of water ice, which scientists think can be mined for life support and rocket fuel.
Back to the moon with Chandrayaan-4
Chandrayaan-4 will be a complex endeavor that will launch four modules across two LVM-3 rocket launches. The first rocket will ferry a lander and a sample-collecting ascender vehicle that will land on the rim of an unspecified crater near the moon’s south pole, while the…
Source www.space.com
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