Shukrayaan-1 : News and Updates

Gautam

Gautam

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Feb 16, 2019
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From Wiki, to be used as a primer :

Shukrayaan-1 (शुक्रयान-१ or Venus craft) is a proposed orbiter to Venus by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to study the surface and atmosphere of Venus.

Funds were released in 2017 to complete preliminary studies, and solicitations for instruments have been announced. If fully funded, it would be launched some time after the Mars Orbiter Mission 2 in the early 2020s. The orbiter, depending on its final configuration, would have a science payload capability of approximately 100 kilograms (220 lb) with 500 W available power. The initial elliptical orbit around Venus is expected to have 500 km (310 mi) at periapsis and 60,000 km (37,000 mi) at apoapsis.

As a preparation for this project from 2016 to 2017, ISRO collaborated with JAXA to study the Venus atmosphere using signals from the Akatsuki in a radio occultation experiment.

On 19 April 2017, ISRO made an 'Announcement of Opportunity' (AO) seeking science payload proposals from Indian academia based on broad mission specifications. On 6 November 2018, ISRO made another 'Announcement of Opportunity' inviting payload proposals from the international scientific community. The available science payload capacity was revised to 100 kg from 175 kg mentioned in the first AO. As of late 2018, the Venus mission is in the configuration study phase and ISRO has not sought the Indian government's full approval. Somak Raychaudhury, the director of IUCAA, stated in 2019 that a drone-like probe was being considered to be a part of mission.

continued.....
 
Now this happened yesterday :

ISRO presentation at Venus Exploration Analysis Group VEXAG2019 on proposed mission to Venus :

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The mission might formally kick off soon.
 
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India Has a New Planetary Target in Mind : Venus

By Meghan Bartels
8th November.
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An image of Venus based on data from Akatsuki, the Japanese spacecraft currently orbiting our neighbor.(Image: Planet-C Project Team/JAXA)

India has launched just three planetary-science spacecraft, but the country is already eyeing a new destination : Venus.

Scientists and engineers at the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) have sent plans for a Venus orbiter to the Indian national government and are hoping they'll get approval to go ahead with the mission. The spacecraft could launch in just a few years and would carry more than a dozen instruments.

"The major objective is to map the Venusian surface and subsurface," Nigar Shaji, an ISRO scientist, told a group of Venus experts during a meeting held this week in Colorado.

According to Shaji, the Venus orbiter that ISRO is designing would be able to create such a dataset for Venus in about a year. In addition to mapping the surface itself, looking a bit deeper into the planet should help scientists identify volcanic hotspots scattered across Venus.

Instruments onboard the spacecraft would also study the planet's atmosphere and ionosphere, as well as how Venus interacts with the surrounding environment, Shaji said. ISRO has identified 16 instruments from Indian scientists that it would like to fly. Those include instruments focused on monitoring clouds, identifying lightning strikes, studying the eerie airglow of the planet and measuring the highly charged plasma particles passing by Venus on their way out from the sun.

Another few instruments came from international partnerships. Three of those were proposed by U.S. scientists, but Shaji said ISRO understands that the funding for those instruments is not viable, so the agency is currently assuming the trio won't fly.

If the mission is approved, the spacecraft could launch in June 2023 on one of ISRO's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles, the same type of vehicle that launched India's Chandrayaan-2 mission to the moon this summer.

In India's history of launches, that spacecraft followed its predecessor, which launched in 2009, and the Mars Orbiter Mission, which launched in 2013. ISRO has also discussed returning to the Red Planet, but preliminary timelines suggest that such a mission would likely launch after the Venus orbiter.

India Has a New Planetary Target in Mind: Venus
 
Gautam said:
Now this happened yesterday :

ISRO presentation at Venus Exploration Analysis Group VEXAG2019 on proposed mission to Venus :

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The mission might formally kick off soon.
Click to expand...
Got some more slides from the same presentation :

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Sub-Satellite ? So we are still on with the Metal balloon thing that the CNES were suggesting. LLISSE-TD is a technology demonstrator of the NASA's Long-Lived In-situ Solar System Explorer project. It seems NASA has expressed an interest in hitching a ride with us. More on the sensor here :

NASA Wants to Send a Probe to the Hellish Surface of Venus

International payloads selected so far :
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ISRO's contribution to the VEXAG :
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A better look at the proposed satellite :
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Oh and I posted this before :

Gautam said:
As a preparation for this project from 2016 to 2017, ISRO collaborated with JAXA to study the Venus atmosphere using signals from the Akatsuki in a radio occultation experiment.
Click to expand...

Here is some additional information on it :

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Translated from Russian :

IKI RAS will take part in the Indian orbital project for the development of Venus

MAY 15, 10:11

Oleg Korablev, the scientific director of the ExoMars mission, head of the IKI RAS laboratory, noted that the Russian Federation proposed “two Russian devices working using the same principle - studying the atmosphere using the solar transillumination method”

MOSCOW, May 15. / TASS /. Space Research Institute (IKI) will create a device for the orbiting vehicle, which India plans to launch to Venus. This was reported by TASS director of the Institute for Space Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Anatoly Petrukovich.

"In terms of these projects (projects in which IKI develops devices for foreign devices - approx. TASS), we have now approved a Russian-French application for participation in the Indian Venus research project," Petrukovich said.

In turn, the scientific director of the ExoMars mission, the head of the IKI laboratory at the Russian Academy of Sciences Oleg Korablev noted to TASS that the Russian Federation proposed "two Russian devices working using the same principle - studying the atmosphere using the solar transillumination method."

This device is designed to study the atmosphere of Venus by spectroscopy. Some components will be French. As of today, this is the only foreign device in the project.

tass.ru

ИКИ РАН примет участие в индийском орбитальном проекте по освоению Венеры

Научный руководитель миссии "ЭкзоМарс", завлабораторией ИКИ РАН Олег Кораблев отметил, что РФ предложила "два российских прибора, работающих с использованием одного и того же принципа - исследования атмосферы методом солнечных "просвечиваний"
tass.ru
 
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India’s Shukrayaan orbiter to study Venus for over four years, launches in 2024​


by Jatan Mehta — November 19, 2020
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A not-to-scale representation of ISRO’s Venus orbiter mission Shukrayaan. Credit: ISRO.

Shukrayaan will be the first mission to map Venus’ subsurface​


MUMBAI, India — India’s space agency aims to launch its Venus orbiter Shukrayaan in late 2024, more than a year later than previously planned, an ISRO research scientist told a NASA-chartered planetary science planning committee Nov. 10.

T. Maria Antonita of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) detailed the status of the mission to scientists drafting a new 10-year plan for NASA’s planetary science program. Shukrayaan will be India’s first mission to Venus and will study the planet for more than four years.

ISRO was aiming for a mid-2023 launch when it released its call for instruments in 2018, but Antonita told members of the National Academies’ decadal survey planning committee last week that pandemic-related delays have pushed Shukrayaan’s target launch date to December 2024 with a mid-2026 backup date (optimal launch windows for reaching Venus occur roughly 19 months apart).

Antonita said Shukrayaan is currently slated to launch on India’s GSLV Mk II rocket. However, she said the team is also evaluating the possible use of the more powerful GSLV Mk III rocket, which would allow Shukrayaan to carry more instruments or fuel. A launch vehicle decision, she said, is expected by the time ISRO freezes the mission’s configuration and final set of instruments in the next three to six months.

In its current configuration, the orbiter weighs about 2,500 kilograms and will carry a science payload consisting of a synthetic aperture radar and other instruments.

Once launched, Shukrayaan is expected to take a few months to reach Venus, where it will enter a highly elliptical orbit of 500 by 60,000 kilometers around the planet. Over the following year, it will use aerobraking to lower its orbit to 200 by 600 kilometers. This polar orbit will be the final one used for scientific observations.

The mission’s primary science objectives are to map Venus’ surface and subsurface while studying the planet’s atmospheric chemistry and interaction with the solar wind.

Shukrayaan’s flagship instrument is an improved version of the dual frequency synthetic aperture radar (SAR) India’s Space Applications Centre built for the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon. Antonita said Shukrayaaan’s SAR payload will have up to four times the resolution of NASA’s Magellan orbiter, a Venus mapper launched in 1989. Notably, Shukrayaan will also carry a ground penetrating radar, making it the first to map Venus’ subsurface. These observations would help scientists better understand Venus’ geology and evolution.

Roughly 100 kilograms of Shukrayaan’s 2.5-ton mass is set aside for scientific instruments, according to the call for instrument proposals ISRO issued two years ago soliciting payloads from India and abroad. The open call for instruments marks a return to the approach ISRO took with Chandrayaan-1, the lunar orbiter it launched in 2008 carrying six instruments from countries other than India. The 2013 Mangalyaan Mars orbiter and 2019’s Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter and lander, in contrast, carry only Indian instruments.

Of the proposals, 20 candidate instruments have been shortlisted but the session didn’t mention which ones. Antonita did say that Russia, France, Sweden and Germany will have instruments onboard. The French space agency CNES announced in September that the Venus Infrared Atmospheric Gases Linker, or VIRAL, instrument it codeveloped with Russia’s space agency will fly on Shukrayaan.

In addition to its flagship radar, Shukrayaan will also carry an instrument suite capable of spectroscopic observations in infrared, ultraviolet and submillimeter wavelengths to study Venus’ atmosphere, according to Antonita’s slides. The possible detection of phosphine in Venus’ upper atmosphere excited many people about the prospects of life there, although some scientists are still skeptical. According to Antonita, the presence of phosphine and other biomarkers in Venus’ upper atmosphere could be confirmed using the orbiter’s Near Infrared Spectrometer. The instrument will also be used to detect and locate any active volcanism on Venus

Only three spacecraft have orbited Venus in the past 30 years, but space agencies around the world are showing renewed interest in the second planet from the sun. NASA selected two Venus missions earlier this year for further consideration for launch opportunities in 2025 and 2028. The European Space Agency is considering a Venus orbiter mission called EnVision that would launch by the 2030s. And Russia is working on a Venus orbiter and lander mission concept called Venera-D that would launch no earlier than 2023.

spacenews.com

India’s Shukrayaan orbiter to study Venus for over four years, launches in 2024

India’s space agency aims to launch its Venus orbiter Shukrayaan in late 2024, more than a year later than previously planned, an ISRO research scientist told a NASA-chartered planetary science pla…
spacenews.com spacenews.com
 
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