Chandrayan-2 will be completely indigenous: ISRO chief

Ahemdabad, Apr 15: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman A S Kiran Kumar on Thursday said the 'Chandrayan-2', which would be developed in the next two to three years, would be completely indigenous.

"Originally, the lander (one of the parts) was supposed to come from Russia. Now we are developing our own technology. So it will be completely an indigenous system," Kumar said, adding that "sometime in 2017-18" it would be ready.

Chandrayan-1, India's first lunar probe, was launched in 2008. Kumar was here to attend an award ceremony.

Talking about the country's Mars Orbitor Mission (MOM), he said there will be a communication black-out around June.

"On March 24 we completed our originally planned mission. Now all sub-systems are working fine and we have about 39 kg of fuel still remaining. So it can last for a long time," Kumar said.

"But we have one event which we have to look at. Sometime in June this year, we will have for about two weeks a communication black-out, because the Sun and the Mars, as they will come in the same line, the antenna will get slightly blinded. Because of that no communication will be possible for 14 days," he said.

"So during that time, the autonomy built in the satellite is supposed to take care of all operations....we have to wait and watch," said Kumar.

PTI