Here Are The Upcoming ISRO Missions Planned By The Indian Space Agency After Chandrayaan-3's Success

After the success of Chandrayaan-3, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is continuing its ambitious journey, planning advanced interplanetary explorations, satellite deployments, and technological advancements.

Here are the upcoming missions of ISRO, as stated officially on their website

• Aditya L1

• XPoSat

• Nisar

• SPADEX

• Gaganyaan

Aditya L1 will be the first space-based Indian mission to study the Sun. The aim of this mission is to observe solar activities and their effect on space weather in real time. Some of the objectives of the mission are the study of solar upper atmospheric (chromosphere and corona) dynamics, the study of chromospheric and coronal heating, physics of the partially ionised plasma, initiation of the coronal mass ejections, and flares, etc.

As per the mission booklet of the Aditya-L1 mission here is some imporant information regarding India's mission to the Sun.

Major Science Objectives of Aditya L1 Mission

• Understanding the Coronal Heating and Solar Wind Acceleration.

• Understanding initiation of Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), flares and near-earth space weather.

• To understand coupling and dynamics of the solar atmosphere.

• To understand solar wind distribution and temperature anisotropy.

What is so unique about the Aditya L1 Mission

• First time spatially resolved solar disk in the near UV band.

• CME dynamics close to the solar disk (~ from 1.05 solar radius) and thereby providing information in the acceleration regime of CME which is not observed consistently.

• On-board intelligence to detect CMEs and solar flares for optimised observations and data volume.

• Directional and energy anisotropy of solar wind using multi-direction observations.

The Aditya L1 mission will be launched on September 2 at 11:50 Hrs. IST from Sriharikota.

How long will it take for the spacecraft of Aditya-L1 Mission to reach the Lagrange point L1?

The total travel time from launch to L1 would take about four months for Aditya-L1.

The Aditya-L1 mission will be launched by ISRO PSLV rocket from Sathish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR (SDSC SHAR), Sriharikota. Initially, the spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit. Subsequently, the orbit will be made more elliptical, and later the spacecraft will be launched towards the Lagrange point L1 by using on-board propulsion. As the spacecraft travels towards L1, it will exit the earth’s gravitational Sphere of Influence (SOI). After exit from SOI, the cruise phase will start and subsequently, the spacecraft will be injected into a large halo orbit around L1.

XPoSat (X-ray Polarimeter Satellite) is India’s first dedicated polarimetry mission to study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions. The spacecraft will carry two scientific payloads in a low earth orbit.

The XPoSat would help us learn even more about space signals that are given by black holes, neutron stars, active galactic nuclei, and pulsar wind nebulae. By this mission, scientists hope to get clearer answers about those mysterious space signals.

On May 25, 2023, ISRO organized a one-day XPoSat User Meet. The user meet aimed to bring various national experts together to brainstorm the best utilization of XPoSat for advancing cutting-edge scientific understanding in Astronomy. In order to reach to wider audience across the nation, the meeting was made live on ISRO's Facebook and YouTube channel.

The User Meet had participation from about 20 Institute/Universities all across the country. A total of about 150 participants attended the meeting in which nearly 100 attended in-person and others participated through online platform. The User meet has about 20 presentations from the XPoSat project as well as from the science community all across the nation.

NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) is a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) observatory that is being jointly developed by NASA and ISRO. The aim of NISAR is to map the entire globe in 12 days and provide spatially and temporally consistent data for understanding changes in Earth’s ecosystems, ice mass, vegetation biomass, sea level rise, groundwater and natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides.

It is scheduled to launch in January 2024 and to have a minimum mission lifetime of three years.

ISRO offers the NISAR Utilization Programme (NISAR UP), an opportunity for Indian researchers and scientists to access, analyse and interpret the data from the NASA–ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite mission.

SPADEX or Space Docking Experiment aims to develop and mature the technologies needed for orbital rendezvous, docking, and formation flying. The success of the SPADEX mission will pave the way for future ISRO missions that require docking capabilities, such as the human spaceflight program and the in-space satellite servicing mission.

Gaganyaan project envisages a demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of 3 members to an orbit of 400 km for a 3-day mission and bringing them back safely to earth, by landing in Indian sea waters.

The pre-requisites for the Gaganyaan mission include the development of many critical technologies including human-rated launch vehicle for carrying crew safely to space, a Life Support System to provide an earth-like environment to the crew in space, crew emergency escape provision and evolving crew management aspects for training, recovery and rehabilitation of crew.

LVM3 rocket - The well-proven and reliable heavy lift launcher of ISRO, is identified as the launch vehicle for the Gaganyaan mission. It consists of solid stage, liquid stage and cryogenic stage. 

HSFC (Human Space Flight Centre) shall be responsible for the implementation of the Gaganyaan Project which involves end-to-end mission planning, development of Engineering systems for crew survival in space, crew selection & training and pursuing activities for sustained human space flight missions. HSFC will take support of the existing ISRO Centres to implement , the first development flight of Gaganyaan under Human Space Flight Programme.