it seems today there are constant news
stories of grand news space missions
capable of making great discoveries that
will change the way we see the universe
these proposed space missions often take
years of planning preparation and
execution and are often capitalised by
the media space missions attract a lot
of attention but it's not uncommon to
hear a proposed mission years in advance
be altered or cancelled that being said
we have seen remarkable achievements
made by NASA JAXA ESA China and private
space companies like SpaceX and Blue
Origin but there is one country in space
agency who are changing the game this is
India it's a country with over 1.3
billion people the second-largest
country by population in the world and
it's expected to overtake China in the
coming decades but its population isn't
the only thing on the rise India's first
satellites aryabhata was launched by the
Soviet Union in April 1975 and for 33
years
it's space industry remained rather
stagnant until recently all space
missions are directed by the
government's Indian Space Research
Organisation whose vision is to harness
space technology for national
development while pursuing space science
research and planetary exploration in
October 2008 their lunar orbiter
chandrayaan 1 was launched and
discovered the presence of water ice in
November 2013 their Mars orbiter mission
was carried out which successfully
entered Mars orbit in September 2014 at
a cost of just 74 million dollars they
were able to send the orbiter with five
scientific instruments that still
continue to monitor conditions on Mars
to this day and unlike all three
agencies before them they did it on
their first attempt February 2017 saw
ISRO launch 104 satellites on a single
rocket setting a world record they did
this on their polar satellite launch
vehicle which carried 1,300 kilograms of
payload into space it successfully
deployed all 104 satellites from seven
different countries sending them on the
right paths
travelled at 27,000 km/h to put it into
perspective ISRO  budget in 2018 with set at
only one point seven billion dollars
compared to NASA's 20 point seven
billion India now has plans to launch a
second mission to the moon followed by a
manned space flight in the coming years
chandrayaan 2 is India's second lunar
exploration mission after chandrayaan one scheduled to be launched in April 2019
although this mission has been
rescheduled multiple times since 2018 as
of February 2018 the mission has an
allocated cost of approximately 125
million dollars the mission is planned
to fly on a geosynchronous satellite
launch vehicle mark 3 it's a three stage
medium lift launch vehicle measuring
around 44 metres at height and a cost
per launch of between 46 to 62 million
in 2017 as a comparison SpaceX's Falcon
Heavy has two stages measures around 70
meters and has a cost per launch of 90
million once in space the orbiter will
orbit the moon at an altitude of 100
kilometres with a high-resolution camera
to conduct high-resolution observations
of the landing site the missions Lander
is called vikram named after vikram
sarabhai
who is widely regarded as the father of
the Indian space program it will detach
from the orbiter and descend to a lower
lunar orbit before attempting to land on
the lunar surface the Landers propulsion
system consists of eight thrusters for
altitude control and five liquid main
engines with the lander safely on the
surface a six wheeled Rover will be
deployed operated on solar power the
rover will perform on-site chemical
analysis and send the data to the
orbiter above which will relay it back
to earth a total of 10 electric motors
will be used for traction and steering
accompanied by kinetic traction control
which will enable the rover to navigate
the rough lunar terrain the landing site
is a high plane between two craters
man's earnest and simp elias at a
latitude of about 70 degrees south if
successful chandrayaan 2 will be the first
ever mission to land a rover near the lunar south pole this
mission will use and test various new
technologies and conduct new experiments
ISRO stated the payloads will
collect scientific information on lunar
topography mineralogy
elemental abundance lunar exosphere and
signatures of hydroxyl and water ice
which will provide more data after the
information collected 50 years ago by
the human Apollo missions it's row plans
to use the experience for more
challenging missions of the future such
as touching down on an asteroid or Mars
or sending a spacecraft to Venus since
2004 when ISRO first prepared a plan
for human spaceflight the agency has
been developing technologies that are
building blocks for such a mission
the first crewed flight is planned with
a spacecraft called Gurgaon Yin for
December 2021 on a homegrown GSLV three
rocket the most crucial objective is
that of the crew module a capsule that
can carry humans this row have
successfully demonstrated this by having
a prototype pre enter the Earth's
atmosphere withstanding the thermal heat
caused by friction but there is still
more tests and development to be done
this room will also be conducting test
flights for a new and improved rocket
the SS LV or small satellite launch
vehicle set for summer this year as the
name implies the SS LV will launch
smaller satellites that weigh between
500 to 700 kilograms at just 34 metres
tall the rocket has four stages with a
payload capacity of 500 kilograms to
low-earth orbit what will make these
vehicles so special is their low cost
being one-tenth the cost of the PSLV SS
LV does not require Mission Control
Center to launch the satellites it can
be launched from some personal computer
anywhere assembled for launch within 72
hours India's economic approach to
spaceflight and it's constant changes in
innovations are likely to bring many
benefits to the future of space travel
and
remain a key competitor in the space
industry for many years to come
a special thanks to our patrons Shara
Ogilvie and Jimmy Alexander for
supporting the creation of this video
thanks again for watching
