India’s First Venus Mission Launched In 2023 Are Open To Other Countries

It is likely that ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) will send India’s first mission to Venus in 2023 as it is working on preparation for the mission. And other countries are invited to be a part of this.

After planning for a year and a half, the space agency has invited nations to send proposals for scientific payloads on the mission. There will be 12 instruments, for example, a cloud monitoring camera, a thermal camera, and mass spectrometer. As stated by ISRO, the spacecraft is expected to have a payload capacity of 100 kilograms, with 500W power.

ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization)

ISRO will launch its spacecraft to a sharply inclined orbit around Venus so that after several months, it can shorten the distance to the planet. Like the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) in 2013, this spacecraft will fly in an ellipse-shaped orbit where Venus is 60,000 kilometers away at most and at the closest point, it is only 500 kilometers away. The key purpose of this launch is researching the planet’s surface, the chemical characteristics of its atmosphere, as well as solar radiation’s influence on it.

In 2008, ISRO has its first space mission which was Chandrayaan, making India the world’s fourth country to set its foot on the Moon. In 2013, with ISRO’s second mission – Mangalyaan, India became the first country in Asia to reach Mars orbit. And the expected launch in 2023 will be its third mission. Yet, if ISRO launches Chandrayaan-2 in 2019, the Venus orbiter will become the fourth space mission.

Chandrayaan

Mangalyaan

More importantly, if the Indian Space Research Organization succeeds in bringing a spacecraft to Venus orbit at the same cost with Mars Orbiter Mission, that will prove the agency to be the most frugal over the world. In that case, other countries will certainly find it enticing to bring single satellites to space without having to make their own rockets.