Chandrayaan-2

After the victorious launch of India's first mission to moon, Chandrayaan-1, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is setting up to send its second lunar odyssey, Chandrayaan-2, an Indo-Russian joint venture, to be expected by the end of next year or early 2010. Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) is combining with ISRO for development of Chandrayaan-2 Lander/Rover.

Chandrayaan-2 will comprise the spacecraft and a landing platform with the moon rover. The rover would move on wheels on the lunar surface, pick up samples of soil or rocks, do a chemical analysis and send the data to the spacecraft orbiting above.

The rover will weigh between 30 kg and 100 kg, depending on whether it is to do a semi-hard landing or soft landing. The rover will have an operating life-span of a month. It will run mainly on solar energy.