ISRO’s Epic Adventure: Bringing Home Moon Soil from Shiv Shakti!
India’s space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is preparing for a historic endeavor as it plans to embark on its first mission to gather soil or rock samples from the Moon and bring them back to Earth. Known as the Lunar Sample Return Mission (LSRM), this ambitious project represents a major advancement in India’s space exploration efforts.
ISRO’s Space Applications Center (SAC) director Nilesh Desai shared insights on the mission and said, “ISRO is now planning a bigger mission where we will try to bring back soil or rock samples. Hopefully in the next five to seven years, we will be able to meet this challenge,” Indian Express reported.
The LSRM includes four key modules: the Transfer Module, the Lander Module, the Ascender Module and the Re-entry Module. Notably, this mission departs from ISRO’s traditional approach of using two separate launch vehicles to carry out a complex mission.
The mission design includes a robotic arm mechanism for sampling at the Shiv Shakti point on the lunar surface. The samples are then loaded into the Ascender module. After taking off from the lunar surface, the Ascender module docks with the Transfer module, where another robotic arm transfers the samples to the Re-entry module. Eventually, both the transfer and reentry modules are expected to return and land on Earth.
Key highlights of ISRO’s LSR mission:
1. The 2028 launch mission aims to collect soil/rock samples from the Shiv Shakti point on the lunar surface.
2. Deviating from convention, ISRO uses two launch vehicles – GSLV Mark-II for Transfer and Re-entry modules and GSLV Mark-III for Ascender and Lander modules.
3. The project, like the successful Chandrayaan 3 in August, is planned for one lunar day (equivalent to 14 days on Earth) and focuses on studying the lunar surface, soil and samples.
4. ISRO’s LSRM draws parallels with NASA’s recent collection of samples from near-Earth asteroid Bennu by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft after a seven-year journey.
