India is planning to launch a fifth lunar probe carrying a 25-kilogram rover, in association with Japan, after becoming the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the moon.
The Indian government has approved plans for the Chandrayaan-5 moon mission, the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) V Narayanan said on Monday, according to reports from Indian media.
At an event at the ISRO headquarters in the South Indian city of Bengaluru, Narayanan said that the Chandrayaan-5 mission would include a 250-kilogram rover that would study the moon’s surface.
“Just three days back, we got the approval for Chandrayaan-5 Mission. We will be doing it in association with Japan,” the Indian Express quoted Narayanan as saying.
“This advanced rover aims to conduct detailed studies of the Moon’s surface and composition,” he added.
India’s moon missions so far
India’s first Moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, was successfully launched in 2008. It collected chemical, mineralogical and photo-geologic data from the moon.
The next mission was launched in 2019 and aimed to study the moon’s topography and mineral composition. It comprised an orbiter, lander and rover to explore the unexplored South Pole of the Moon.
The Chandrayaan-2’s orbiter continues to send back high-resolution images of the moon, even though the mission suffered a few setbacks in its final stages.
Chandrayaan-3’s lander, named Vikram, successfully soft-landed on the South pole of the moon on August 23, 2023.
Last year, the Indian government accorded approval for two significant space missions which also included Chandrayaan-4 which the ISRO is aiming to launch by 2027.
The objective of the Chandrayaan-4 mission is to collect lunar samples and bring them back to Earth.
In February, the country’s Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh said that India will launch the Chandrayaan-4 mission in 2027 to bring back samples of moon rocks to the Earth.
India is also hoping to launch its first manned space mission, the Gaganyaan Mission, in 2028.
