Beyond Moon: After Chandrayaan 2, ISRO plans for Mars, Venus and other missions

Bengaluru, Oct 07: Though the Vikram lander, which was a part of India's first attempt to land on the moon with the Chandrayaan 2 mission, appear to be incommunicado on the moon's surface after a failed 7 September crash landing, but the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO's) has planned a packed couple of projects on its to-do list in the near-future.

The space agency along with trying to communicate with Vikram lander and Gaganyaan, they are also working on a total of seven interplanetary missions. Among the destinations are Mars, the Moon, Venus, the Sun's corona and interplanetary space to study space.

There are plans to build a space station and launch interplanetary missions to Mars and Venus.

While Chandrayaan-2 was meant for soft-landing of Vikram on the lunar surface, Gaganyaan's mandate will be to send the astronauts to space and bring them back to earth safely.

The Isro plans to send three Indians to space by 2022, an announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his last Independence Day speech. Besides this, the ISRO will also launch Aditya L-1, India's first solar mission, by next year.

(with PTI inputs)