After India’s promising success in Moon mission, Chandrayaan-3, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is now planning missions capable of returning samples to Earth. A hop carried out by the Vikram lander on the Moon’s surface on September 3 was a move in that direction, officials said.
The findings from Chandrayaan-3, particularly the successful hop experiment, will be the basis of future lunar missions, an ISRO official said on the condition of anonymity. The space agency will design programmes aiming to bring samples back to Earth on the basis of these experiments, he said.
“There is no definitive timeline for this yet, but we are working on developing our systems in a way that it can undertake a return flight. The hop experiment was only a demonstration of the larger plan,” the official was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying.
Only a few countries have demonstrated the ability to make the hop. Chandrayaan 3’s Vikram successfully made a soft landing again on the surface of the moon after the lander performed a hop on September 3.
“Vikram soft-landed on the moon, again! Vikram Lander exceeded its mission objectives. It successfully underwent a hop experiment. On command, it fired the engines, elevated itself by about 40 cm as expected, and landed safely at a distance of 30-40 cm away,” ISRO said in an ‘X’ (formally Twitter) post.
“Importance?: This ‘kick-start’ enthuses future sample return and human missions! All systems performed nominally and are healthy. Deployed Ramp, ChaSTE, and ILSA were folded back and redeployed successfully after the experiment,” the space agency added.
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