The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has planned to launch Chandrayaan-4 to bring back samples from the Moon in four years, said its chairperson S Somanath while elaborating on the space agency’s Vision 2047.
By 2028, the first module of India's proposed space station, Bharatiya Antariksh Station, which will employ robots to conduct experiments, is scheduled to be launch. The space agency was earlier urged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to establish a space station by 2035 and deploy a man to the moon by 2040.
While these missions may seem far off, an experiment crucial for sustained human spaceflight will be “launched in the next three to four months,” said Somanath during a lecture at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The SPADEX experiment will demonstrate autonomous docking capability. Docking is a process where two spacecrafts are aligned in a precise orbit and joined together. Explaining the mission, Somanath said: “Two satellites that are connected to each other will be launched, they will separate out, travel for a few kms, and then come back and connect.”
While India successfully developed the lander and rover on-board Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3 missions after Russia backed out, Somanath said that for a sample-return mission “we need much more technology than what we have developed for the landing.”
The Gaganyaan mission, which will send astronauts into low Earth orbit and return them to Earth, will serve as a demonstration of the technologies being developed, he said. These technologies include robotic arms for collecting samples, mechanisms for docking in Earth and Moon orbits, sample transfers, and re-entry into the atmosphere without burning up.