More Evidence Russia Has Dumped Chandrayaan 2?

[arp2041]

A presentation by a Russian space official on Russia's lunar exploration plans at a symposium in Texas made no mention of the Chandrayaan 2 mission, seemingly confirming past reports of a Russian dropout.

Igor Mitrofanov of the Institute for Space Research (IKI) in Moscow made the presentation during Microsymposium 54 on "Lunar Farside and Poles — New Destinations for Exploration," held in The Woodlands, Texas, on March 16 and 17. [via Huffington Post]

The Chandrayaan-2 mission aims to place an orbiter around the moon and send a lander with a rover to its surface.

Russia and India signed an agreement on November 12, 2007 to collaborate on the mission, with ISRO and the Russian Space Agency, Roskosmos, contributing Rs 425 crore towards the cost of the mission.

The spacecraft was to be launched in 2014, with an orbiter made by ISRO and a lander made by Roscosmos. The lander was to carry a small Indian built rover to collect and examine lunar soil samples. The project was part of the Russian Luna-Resource exploration program detailed at the microsymposium mentioned above.

On January 21, 2013, Dr. S.V.S. Murty of the Planetary Exploration Group of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), an institution in Ahmedabad under ISRO, announced that India would undertake the Chandrayaan mission all by itself, dropping earlier plans of collaborating with Russia.

Dr. Murty was speaking on India's lunar and Mars missions at a workshop on exoplanets at the laboratory.

Murty went on to elaborate:

ISRO took the decision to go it alone after Russia's Roskosmos expressed its inability to provide the lander for the mission, following the failure of the Russian Phobos-Grunt mission to Mars in November 2011.

ISRO will now make the orbiter, lander and rover all in-house.

SAC has completed the design of the indigenous lander and preliminary configuration study, according to Murty. The mission profile has undergone minor alterations.

The Chandrayaan-2 will be launched using a GSLV powered by an indigenous cryogenic engine in 2015.

The Orbiter will have five primary payloads, two of which will be improvements on instruments that were onboard Chandrayaan-1.

The rover too would carry two additional instruments.

PRL director Jitendra Goswami clarified that despite the Russian pull out from the Chandrayaan project, Indo-Russian collaboration in planetary exploration will continue.

A day later, Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) Director J N Goswami told the press that Chandrayaan 2 would continue to be a joint Indo-Russian project despite the delay.

"The Indo-Russian mission is going ahead. The project has got delayed. Currently, we are whole-heartedly working for the Mars project scheduled for November. The moon mission, for the time being, has got delayed," Goswami told PTI.

"The failure of Roskosmos Phobos-Grunt mission (in December 2011) has, for the time-being, delayed the moon mission," Goswami said, adding the construction of lander for the combined mission has been delayed.

PTI, which had reported the Roskosmos dropout based on Murty's statements made repeated attempts to contact him, but he was not available for comments on the issue.

It appears that while ISRO may not have lost all hope of a Russian collaboration, the Russians are determined to seize the initiative for themselves in lunar exploration.

For details of the Chandrayaan 2 project please visit the link below.

More Evidence Russia Has Dumped Chandrayaan 2?

 

[Ayush]

wtf, we should do it our own then...
@arp2041, can we??

 

[arp2041]

wtf, we should do it our own then...
@arp2041, can we??

We have no other option, we have already come a long way in the the Chandrayaan-2 project.

But, making an orbiter & making a ROVER are two completely different things, we have to successfully land it on moon SAFELY, than carry out its mission, again SAFELY & also ensure that the findings are transmitted to the ISRO ground stations.

This is a very complex tech. Russia itself pulled out of the project b'coz it's own lander/rover got failed in its Mars mission. US & Russia are the two nations who have achieved mastery over this tech & we will be doing it for the first time.

Lander/Rover is only the main DIFFERENCE b/w Chandrayaan-1 & Chandrayaan-2 Projects, hence we have to do it some how.

 

[Ayush]

We have no other option, we have already come a long way in the the Chandrayaan-2 project.

But, making an orbiter & making a ROVER are two completely different things, we have to successfully land it on moon SAFELY, than carry out its mission, again SAFELY & also ensure that the findings are transmitted to the ISRO ground stations.

This is a very complex tech. Russia itself pulled out of the project b'coz it's own lander/rover got failed in its Mars mission. US & Russia are the two nations who have achieved mastery over this tech & we will be doing it for the first time.

Lander/Rover is only the main DIFFERENCE b/w Chandrayaan-1 & Chandrayaan-2 Projects, hence we have to do it some how.

let's hope for the best...

what are the chances of usa helping us @arp2041? ?

 

[BlueDot_in_Space]

wtf, we should do it our own then...
@arp2041, can we??

Indigenous lunar lander development proposal has been finalized by ISRO.

 

[suren]

ISRO will go for its own lander and rover
I'm trying to find the link...

 

[Srinivas]

No need for Russian support we can do it ourselves

Indian Space Programme is mature one, they have already done Chandrayaan I. That experience will come in Handy for Chandrayaan 2.

 

[Developereo]

Too much prestige associated with space 'firsts'. Later missions can collaborate, but I guess countries don't want to share the glory.

The US has managed to do a lot of 'firsts' by itself, so Russia would look bad if it couldn't do them by itself.

 

[arp2041]

Too much prestige associated with space 'firsts'. Later missions can collaborate, but I guess countries don't want to share the glory.

The US has managed to do a lot of 'firsts' by itself, so Russia would look bad if it couldn't do them by itself.

I highly Doubt PRESTIGE is what making Russia Opt out of this project, if that was the case than why would they offered the JV on the first place?? Similarly NASA used India's Chandrayaan-1 to conduct experiments on lunar surface which ultimately found out water, since it was a JV, credit has been given to both.

IT is the failure of Russia's own lander/rover during Mars mission that has forced the Russians to opt out of the project, it happens when countries come together on technological JVs, eg. being F-35 Project or ISS Project from which many countries have opted out of late.

 

[Developereo]

I highly Doubt PRESTIGE is what making Russia Opt out of this project, if that was the case than why would they offered the JV on the first place?? Similarly NASA used India's Chandrayaan-1 to conduct experiments on lunar surface which ultimately found out water, since it was a JV, credit has been given to both.

IT is the failure of Russia's own lander/rover during Mars mission that has forced the Russians to opt out of the project, it happens when countries come together on technological JVs, eg. being F-35 Project or ISS Project from which many countries have opted out of late.

Note that I was specific about the prestige of 'firsts'. F35 and ISS were not 'firsts', hence prestige was not an issue for the leaders.

The reason Russian approached India for a JV was purely for one reason -- money. As much as I respect ISRO, the Russians are decades ahead of India in space tech. Heck, they were giving the Americans a run for their money and actually beat them on many 'firsts' before the Apollo landings.

 

[arp2041]

Note that I was specific about the prestige of 'firsts'. F35 and ISS were not 'firsts', hence prestige was not an issue for the leaders.

The reason Russian approached India for a JV was purely for one reason -- money. As much as I respect ISRO, the Russians are decades ahead of India in space tech. Heck, they were giving the Americans a run for their money and actually beat them on many 'firsts' before the Apollo landings.

AGREED. Not contesting that FACT.

But, this is the era of GLOBALIZATION. Why should 2 countries let EGO come in between them & do the same thing again & again when instead they could partner & achieve the same result in half the money & half the time??

Don't forget, NASA din't let her EGO come in between & used the Indian Platform of Chandrayaan-1 to send it's own payloads.

If Russia was trying to achieve the same objectives as ISRO wanted to achieve with Chandrayaan-2, it was smart on there part to do it together instead of re-inventing the wheel. But guess, the failure of there Mars mission had an effect on this mission as well. I am again saying, it has nothing to do with the prestige of "firsts".