ISRO's solar mission Aditya will be ready for launch in September

The South Pole has a specific advantage with respect to being less illuminated by the sun, said ISRO chief

After the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 made a historic soft landing on the Moon on August 23, the agency is all set to roll out its solar mission. The ISRO chief also said the Aditya mission to the Sun is likely to be launched in September.

"Aditya Mission to the Sun is getting ready for launch in September. Gaganyaan is still a work in progress. We will do a mission possibly by the end of September or October to demonstrate the crew module and the crew escape capability which will be followed by many test missions until we do the first manned mission possibly by 2025,” said ISRO chief S Somanath.

Aditya-L1 will be the country's first space-based mission to study the Sun, and will be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 of the Sun-Earth system

Meanwhile, the Pragyan rover of Chandrayaa-3 ramped down from the Vikram lander and started moving on the lunar surface. The rover will move on the Moon's surface for the next 14 days, which is approximately one lunar daylight period.

“Pragyan Rover has two instruments both related to elemental composition findings on the moon as well as chemical compositions... Moreover, it will do the roving over the surface. We will also do a robotic path planning exercise which is important for future explorations for us...,” said ISRO chief S Somanath. As the rover moves forward, it will leave the imprints of India's national symbol, the Ashoka Pillar and the logo of ISRO.

The rover would study the surface of the moon through its payload APXS - Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer - to derive the chemical composition and infer mineralogical composition to further enhance understanding of the lunar surface, according to a PTI report.

On why the lunar south pole was chosen, Somanath said, “The South Pole has a specific advantage with respect to being less illuminated by the sun. There is a potential for it to have more scientific content...Scientists who are working on the moon showed a lot of interest in the South Pole because ultimately human beings want to go and create colonies and then travel beyond. So the best place is something we are looking for and the South Pole has the potential to be that.”

Meanwhile, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on August 24 felicitated Somanath at the space agency’s headquarters in Bengaluru.