Chandrayaan-3 will 'retain the heritage' of its predecessor, and also be cheaper

• Union minister for the Department of Space Jitendra Singh told Lok Sabha that Chandrayaan-3 will launch in the first half of 2021.
  
• India’s third lunar mission will “retain the heritage” of its predecessor Chandrayaan-2.
  
• It will also be more robust to avoid the errors of the last mission.
  

India’s third mission to the Moon is expected to launch in the first half of 2021. Union minister for the Department of Space told the Lok Sabha, that the revised configuration “retains the heritage” of Chandrayaan-2.

“Chandrayaan-3 mission has been configured based on the lessons learnt from Chandrayaan-2. The revised configuration takes care of the robustness in design, capacity enhancement for mission flexibility and, at the same time, retains the heritage of Chandrayaan-2 to the extent possible,” wrote Jitendra Singh.

During the Chandrayaan-2 mission, things went smoothly until it was time to land — the trans-lunar injection and the orbiter-lander separation were successful. However, when Vikram approached the lunar surface, it wasn’t able to slow down, resulting in a crash.

Instead of rehashing the entire mission, Singh told the Lok Sabha that the Chandrayaan 3 mission will only be a lander mission, which will also make it more economical.

Chandrayaan-3 will be cheaper than Chandrayaan-2
After Chandrayaan-2’s lander, Vikram, crash-landed on the Moon last year, support poured in from all corners of the globe. At the beginning of the year, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Sivan confirmed that India will be taking another crack at trying to soft-land on Earth’s natural satellite.

Although the exact cost of the mission isn’t known, Sivan estimates that it will be around ₹6.15 billion rupees ($91.2 million). In comparison, the Chandrayaan-2 mission cost India ₹9.7 billion rupees ($136.1). Although more expensive, it was still considered to be an extremely economic mission by global space agencies.

The year of Chandrayaan-3 and Gaganyaan
According to Sivan, “This is going to be the year of Chandrayaan-3 and Gaganyaan.” And, the preparation for India’s first manned mission into space is well underway, according to Singh.

He informed the Lok Sabha that four biological and two physical science microgravity experiments from academic institutions have already been shortlisted for the mission.

“Hardware realisation has commenced for the ground test and first unmanned mission. The space flight training of four astronaut candidates has commenced (in Russia). National collaboration for design, development and delivery of human-centric products such as crew medical kits, health monitoring systems, emergency survival kits, earmuffs and fire suppression systems has started,” he added.

See also:
India's second mission to land on the Moon, Chandrayaan 3, confirmed by ISRO chief

India wants to set up its own space station to carry out experiments in microgravity

Union Budget 2020: 'Allocation to space exploration should be considered a seed fund'