THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Indian Space Research Organisation has a history of stunning the world by conducting space missions at incredibly low costs. In line with this legacy, the ISRO has now set its eyes on Venus expedition at a trifling cost of Rs 500 crore to Rs 1,000 crore.
“The cost will depend on the extend of instrumentation. If you put a lot of payload instruments, the cost will naturally go up,” said ISRO chairman S Somanath on Friday.
While international space agencies like NASA spends huge amounts on space missions, the ISRO opts for budget missions. ISRO’s Chandrayan-1 was a budget spaceship built at a cost of only Rs 386 crore. The Chandrayaan-2 mission cost Rs 603 crore while its launch was made at Rs 367 crore.
Speaking to media on the sidelines of a national conference on Aerospace Quality and Reliability here, the ISRO chief said the agency is in the process of approaching the Union government seeking approval for the mission.
Responding to questions, he said the schedule for Chandrayan-3 is yet to be fixed. The ISRO, after its Moon and Mars missions, is now looking at a Venus mission. Even as there are reports that the ISRO has been eyeing a December 2024 window for launching the Venus mission, Somanath said the schedule hasn’t been finalised yet. It would be announced only after final clearance by the Union government.The ISRO has been making efforts to ensure that it would be a unique mission. “We have to be careful with expensive missions of this nature, he said.
It’s not mere fancy for work: ISRO chairman
“It’s not mere fancy for work that we want to do a Venus mission. We do it for the unique identity that this mission will create amongst all the Venus missions that are likely to happen in future. That’s the goal,” said Somanath, adding the mission would generate a lot of data than can be utilised by scientists. Though the schedule has not been announced yet, the ISRO is ready with the preparatory stages. “The technology definition, the work package, schedule, procurement — all these are ready. But then it has to go to the government, which will analyse it and has to finally approve the same,” he said. He said Chandrayan 3 is now going through testing stages including navigation, instrumentation and ground simulations. However no schedule has been fixed.