Chandrayaan – 4 to be launched in 2 Phases
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch its next Chandrama mission Chandrayaan-4 after the resounding success of Chandrayaan-3. This mission will consist of five spacecraft modules, ISRO chief S Somanath said at the National Space Science Symposium.
Chandrayaan-3 had three main components- lander, rover and the propulsion module. The five spacecraft modules to be used in Chandrayaan-4 are propulsion module, descender module, ascender module, tranfer module, and re-entry module.
The five components of the awaited Chandrayaan-4 lunar mission will be launched in two phases, according to Somanath. In the first phase, the LVM-3 will launch propulsion, descender, and ascender modules, similar to the Chandrayaan-3 mission in 2023.
In the second phase, the tranfer and re-entry modules will be launched aboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). This will be the first mission involving two launch vehicles to complete a single mission.
The aim of this journey to Chandrama and back by ISRO is to get rock samples and other samples from the lunar surface and return them back safely to Prithvi for scientific studies.
Besides this, the ISRO aims to perform safe and soft landing on lunar surface, lunar sample containerisation, ascend from the Chandram’s surface, docking and undocking in lunar orbit, transfer of samples from one module to other, and return and re-entry to Prithvi for sample delivery.
Like Chandrayaan-3, the propulsion module will guide Chandrayaan-4 in lunar orbit before separating from the spacecraft whereas the descender will make the lunar landing.
Once the samples from Chandrama are collected and stored, the ascender module will eject from the lander and begin returning to the Earth. The transfer module, on the other hand, will be responsible for getting the ascender module out of the lunar orbit.
Besides this, the transfer module will also come back to Prithvi before the capsule with the rock and soil samples detach. The re-entry module will carry the loose, unconsolidated layer of rock and dust that covers solid rock that will land on Prithvi after a return journey to Chandrama.
