Chandrayaan

Russia To Test Chandrayaan-2 Lander Next Year

BENGALURU, India — Next year, Russian space agency Roscomos plans to test the lander that will be part of India’s second Moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, Roscosmos Deputy Head Anatoly Shilov says.
Scheduled to be lofted in 2013, Chandrayaan-2 will have an orbiter, a lander and a rover. It is slated to fly on a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle from Satish Dhawan Space Center on Sriharikota Island.
While the lander will be provided by Russia, the orbiter and the rover are being built by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
The rover will move on wheels on the lunar surface, pick up samples of soil or rocks, perform a chemical analysis and send the data to the spacecraft orbiting above.
The rover will weigh 30-100 kg. (70-220 lb.), depending on whether it is to do a semi-hard landing or soft landing. During its planned one month of surface operations, it will run predominantly on solar power.
Initially two lunar rovers were planned — one from India and a larger one from Russia — but following a cost analysis, the Russians gave up on the rover.
“The tasks of the mission are to investigate rock samples at the maximum distance from the landing point and to confirm the presence of water,” Shilov said at the recent Bengaluru Space Expo. “Today we are talking about moving from research to ... lunar development,” he says.
Meanwhile, the payloads to be flown on Chandrayaan-2 have been finalized by a committee of experts from ISRO centers, academic institutions and R&D laboratories, according to a press statement.
The five recommended payloads are:
• Large-Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer from the ISRO Satellite Center (SAC) in Bengaluru, and Solar X-ray Monitor from the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, for mapping major elements on the lunar surface.

Mission lunaire Chandrayaan-2: la Russie conçoit le module d'atterrissage

L'Agence fédérale spatiale russe (Roskosmos) concevra un module d'atterrissage pour la mission spatiale russo-indienne Chandrayaan-2 à destination de la Lune, a annoncé vendredi aux journalistes le directeur adjoint de l'Agence Anatoli Chilov.

L'objectif de la mission est d'étudier le sol lunaire et de confirmer la présence d'eau, a annoncé M. Chilov lors du salon spatial Bengaluru Space Expo 2010.

Initialement, Roskosmos et l'agence spatiale indienne (ISRO) prévoyaient d'envoyer vers la Lune deux rovers (un indien et un russe). Cependant on a renoncé au rover russe pour des raisons financières.

La première sonde lunaire indienne Chandrayaan-1 a été lancée en octobre 2008. Elle avait transmis des informations sur la présence de molécules d'eau sur la Lune avant que le contact ait été perdu au mois d'août 2009.