ISRO Eyeing Venus As Its Next Destination; Orbiter Launch Slated For June 2023

ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) has been in the headlines for its Chandrayaan 2. Now, the space agency is planning to send its next orbiter to Venus and the idea has already been pitched to the Indian government.

According to the report, ISRO it is waiting for the approval, "The major objective is to map the Venusian surface and subsurface," Space.com quoted Nigar Shaji, an ISRO scientist.

According to Shaji, the orbiter will make a dataset for Venus in one year, and it will map the surface and examine the planet which will help ISRO identify volcanic hotspots on the planet. The orbiter will review the climate and ionosphere of the planet with the help of 16 instruments which are suggested by researchers.

Shaji also explained that instruments will be capable of monitoring clouds, identify lightning strikes, atmosphere, and also measure the plasma particles transmitted by the Sun.

As per the report, some additional instruments are also suggested by the US scientists. However, it seems that ISRO will not fly with those instruments. According to Shaji, the funding for such equipment is not viable and the agency will ditch them for now.

The Venus orbiter is expected to be launched by June 2023 if ISRO receives the approval. The orbiter will be launched on Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles (GSLV). It is similar to vehicles which were used to launch the Chandrayaan-2 mission.

Meanwhile, ISRO is also planning to launch a several interplanetary missions. Here is the list:

• Aditya-L1 Mission: The Aditya-L1 mission is going to be the first ISRO mission to study the Sun's corona and its atmosphere. The spacecraft will study the mystery behind the high temperature of the Sun and investigate how corona gets so heated up. The mission is slated for April 2020 launch.
• Gaganyaan Mission: On 2018 Independence day, PM Modi announced that India is planning to send astronauts to space on a spacecraft which is known as the Gaganyaan. The mission is expected to launch by 2020 and ISRO has already developed the spacecraft's environmental control systems.

• Mangalyaan-2 (the Mars Orbiter Mission-2): ISRO is also planning a second mission to Mars and is expected to launch by 2022-2023. It will be an orbiter-alone mission and no lander or rover will be included this time.
• Chandrayaan-3 Mission: K.Sivan chairperson of ISRO has already announced that it will work for the third Chandrayaan mission. The launch of the mission is expected by the end of 2020. There is also a possibility that this time ISRO will send Indian robots on the Moon to study more about it.