ISRO will accommodate US Instrument inside the upcoming Chandrayaan-3 mission. The news was revealed by Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent charge) Science & Technology, Atomic Energy and Space in the Rajya Sabha. According to reports, India has signed 4 agreements with various countries to collaborate in space exploration in the last five years.

India has signed a deal with Japan to conduct a joint lunar polar exploration mission. There will be a feasibility study before the project kicks in. The Government-owned space agency also signed an agreement with UK to conduct a joint feasibility study for collaboration in future space science missions.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission is a continuation of Chandrayaan-2 with the main goal of putting a rover via a lander on the lunar south pole. The 2019 Chandrayaan-2 mission was a success until the last 3 minutes. The descent failed and the lander crash-landed on the moon.

The mission was unable to reduce the speed upon descent and the mission control lost touch with the lander barely minutes before the scheduled touchdown. The whole India was anxiously waiting for the massive success of Chandrayaan-2 launched via GSLV. Moreover, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was personally present inside the ISRO mission control complex to witness the touchdown. The visibly upset then ISRO chairman K Sivan was consoled by Modi who gave a wonderful motivational speech to work hard.

Chandrayaan-3 comprises a lander and a rover without orbiter. You should note that the orbiter launched along with Chandrayaan-2 is working perfectly and will be used with Chandrayaan-3. ISRO is very particular in lunar south pole exploration because the region hasn’t seen sunlight in recent billion years. Moreover, this region contains Ice and rich mineral deposits.

The mission will also examine the exosphere and subsurface including the surface. The rover will be designed to interact with ISRO mission control via an orbiter borrowed from Chandrayaan-2. The images of the lunar surface will be captured at a distance of 100 km. The Chandrayaan-3 lander will be powered by 4 throttle-able engines and will also carry a Laser Doppler Velocimeter (LDV), which is an advanced instrument. Even though Chandrayaan-3 was scheduled to launch in August 20022, the mission was rescheduled to August 2023 timeframe because ISRO is taking all possible measures to make the whole mission successful. It’s a prestige issue for India because Modi Government is gearing up for elections in April/May 2024.