Chandrayaan 3 - Lander Module successfully landed on Moon on 23" August at 6:04pm. India is the fourth country to reach moon and the first to ever land on the unexplored Lunar south pole. Over the next two weeks or one Lunar Day, the Pragyan rover will explore the area, collect photographs and scientific data to study more about the unexplored area of Moon.
After Chandrayaan - 3, ISRO has now 4 other missions under their bag.
1) Aditya L1.
First ISRO will turn towards Sun. India's Mission to study Sun will be fulfilled by the Aditya L1, the first ever space-based mission of India to Study sun. The spacecraft shall be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, which is about 1.5 million km from the Earth. A satellite placed in the halo orbit around the L1 point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/eclipses. This will provide a greater advantage of observing the solar activities and its effect on space weather in real time, ISRO said. Aditya L1 is set to take off on 2 September, 2023, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andra Pradesh.
2) XPoSat (X-ray Polarimeter Satellite)
The another one is the 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 primary payload POLIX (Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays) will measure the polarimetry parameters (degree and angle of polarization) in medium X-ray energy range of 8-30 keV photons of astronomical origin. ISRO said that The emission mechanism from various astronomical sources such as blackhole, neutron stars, active galactic nuclei, pulsar wind nebulae etc. originates from complex physical processes and are challenging to understand. The polarimetry measurements add two more dimension to our understanding, the degree of polarisation and the angle of polarisation and thus is an excellent diagnostic tool to understand the emission processes from astronomical sources. This project is likely to be launched at the beginning of 2024.
3) NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) Satellite
ISRO is now collaborating with the US Space agency NASA to develop a Low Earth Orbit Observatory, NISAR will map the entire globe in 12 days and provide spatially and temporally consistent data for understanding changes in Earth's ecosystems, Earthquakes and Tsunami. It will provide a detailed study on every single part of Earth's Land and Ice Surface.
4) Gaganyaan Mission
Gaganyaan will be the first Human Space flight by India, before that ISRO has planned two unmanned missions. The objective of the Gaganyaan project is to envisages demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching crew of 3 members to an orbit of 400 km for a 3 days mission and bring them back safely to earth, by landing in Indian sea waters.