India is ready to become a space power: it will bring samples from the Moon and build its own station in orbit

At the end of 2023, India joined the short list of countries that have managed to bring their own technology to the surface of the Moon (along with the Soviet Union, the United States and China). He rover ‘Pragyan’, from the Indian Space Agency (ISRO), is now part of the history of human presence on the satellite. A year after that milestone, the Asian nation has new objectives: to bring its own samples of lunar regolith to Earth and build its space station.

Sreedhara Somanath, president of ISRO, confirmed that the agency is preparing its own mission to send supplies from the Moon to Earth to be launched sometime in 2027. Under the name Chandrayaan-4, They will deploy an extraction system on the surface of the satellite, take the samples they are interested in and return to the planet with the contents intact.

Unlike the previous mission, Chandrayaan-4 will involve multiple takeoffs over the next few years. According to the ISRO leader, the plan includes five modules, each with the ability to enter the Moon, collect material, ascend, descend and propel itself. They will all land gently at different points of interest and gather for a single return trip.

The first step of India’s ambitious plan will come in late 2024. Somanath shared during the Indian Space Congress that they will execute the Spadex experimental space docking mission. Without perfecting these types of maneuvers in microgravity scenarios, their plans in space logistics will not be able to prosper.

The Moon and India

Although several countries are already considering other planets as exploration destinations, ISRO says its long-term interest is in the Moon. “Space Vision 2047 indicates our priorities. We are building momentum to build our own space station and have more access to the Moon. The mission to Venus and a second mission to Mars have not been accelerated,” Somanath said.

Construction of India’s future space station will begin in 2028, when Chandrayaan-4 is completed. It will have five modules, each released independently over the following years. Without delving into details in this regard, ISRO leaders announced that tests of manned space travel are planned in parallel.

With this plan for a sustained presence on the Earth’s satellite, India confirms its interest in actively participating in the so-called lunar economy. The first outlines of this concept include the construction of bases on the surface and the exploitation of their resources for scientific purposes. In this long production chain, vehicles capable of taking off (rockets), reliable tools and equipment (cargo), and companies that reduce shipping costs (competition) are required.

ISRO gains ground in the new space race. It was the first Asian agency to place a device on Mars, the first to achieve a soft landing in the polar circle of the Moon and, recently, they sent their own probe to monitor the behavior of the Sun. These achievements have only been achieved by the United States, China, Russia, Japan and the European Union.