Centre has accorded approval for Chandrayaan-5 Mission: ISRO chief

The Centre has recently accorded approval for the ambitious Chandrayaan-5 mission to study the moon, ISRO Chairman V Narayanan said.

At an event to felicitate him for taking over as the chairman of the Bengaluru-headquartered Indian Space Research Organisation, Narayanan said that unlike the Chandrayaan-3 mission which carried the 25-kg rover 'Prayagyaan', the Chandrayaan-5 mission would carry a 250 kg rover to study the moon’s surface.

The Chandrayaan mission consists of studying the lunar surface. Chandrayaan-1 successfully launched in 2008 took chemical, mineralogical and photo-geologic mapping of the moon. The Chandrayaan-2 mission (2019) was 98 per cent success but just two per cent of the Mission could not be achieved in the final stages.

Still the onboard high resolution camera on Chandrayaan-2 is sending hundreds of images, Narayanan, also the Secretary of Department of Space, said on Sunday.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.

ISRO successfully launched the Chandrayaan-3 mission with the Lander Vikram successfully 'soft-landing' on the South pole of the moon on August 23, 2023.

"Just three days back we got the approval for Chandrayaan-5 Mission. We will be doing it in association with Japan," Narayanan said.

The Chandrayaan-4 Mission expected to be launched in 2027 aims to bring samples collected from the moon.

On ISRO's future projects, Narayanan said apart from various missions including Gaganyaan, plans are afoot to establish India's own Space Station--Bharatiya Space Station.