New Delhi: Chandrayaan 2, the second mission to moon, could be an Indian programme all the way without any Russian support.
This was indicated by Minister of State in PMO V Narayansamy in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
Chandrayaan 2 was originally envisaged to be a joint mission between ISRO and the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos.
While ISRO was to provide for the launch of GSLV, the orbiter and the rover as per the agreement, the Russian agency was to provide the lander and the mission was scheduled for the current year.
But, following the failure of the Russian-led interplanetary mission, the Russian agency reviewed their inter-planetary missions.
It consequently suggested ISRO two windows of opportunities for launching of its Chandrayaan 2 rover – either 2015 or 2017 aboard Soyuz, the Russian spacecraft with a rider that the 2015 opportunity could involve mass limitation for the rover and entitle a higher risk.
In the wake of these inputs, the ISRO conducted a high level review of the Chandrayaan 2 programme under the chairmanship of U R Rao.
The study recommended that the India could itself realise a lander module in a few years and that it could go in for the mission on its own.
Narayansamy said the "details of changes in the configuration and the mission profile are under finalisation.
He also said the payloads on the lander will be finalised in due course taking into account the weight, volume and power constraints of the lander.
