India’s Space Mission Chandrayaan 3 To Be Launched In 2021
New Delhi: Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Monday said that that Chandrayaan-3 is likely to be launched in early 2021 instead of the second half of 2020.
The Union Minister made this announcement adding that the latest mission to Moon will include a rover and lander. However, it will not have an orbiter like the previous Chandrayaan missions.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had mentioned the plans of launching Chandrayaan-3 by the end of 2020, but coronavirus pandemic has delayed the launch of the mission.
On July 22, 2019, Chandrayaan-2 was launched aimed at the Moon's South Pole and on September 7, the Vikram hard landed on Moon's surface. Despite the setback, the orbiter is in working condition and can transmit data back to Earth.
According to Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (MoS) for Department of Space, Chandrayaan-1 has transmitted images suggesting Moon may be rusting along the poles.
"The sign of this finding is that even though the surface of the Moon is known to have iron-rich rocks, it is not known for the presence of water and oxygen, which are the two elements needed to interact with iron to create rust," Jitendra Singh said.
This could also be a sign that the Earth's atmosphere is sheltering the moon as well, scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said. They further added, "Thus, the Chandrayaan-1 Moon data indicates that the Moon's poles are home to water, this is what the scientists are trying to decipher."
India is even gearing up for its first-ever Human Space mission Gaganyaan for which training processes and other procedures are currently underway.
Constraints due to the COVID pandemic led to some disruptions in the plan for Gaganyaan but efforts are going on to stick to the timeline of around 2022.
