SRIHARIKOTA: Six years after courting Mars, India has planned seven scientific missions in the next 10 years, including a date with Venus in 2023.

While the spacecraft to Venus will lift off with more than 20 payloads, the next decade will start with interplanetary missions — Xposat to study cosmic radiation in 2020, Aditya L1 to the Sun in 2021, Mars Orbiter Mission-2 in 2022, Lunar Polar Exploration or Chandrayaan-3 in 2024 and Exoworlds, an exploration outside the solar system in 2028.

Venus is considered to be earth’s ‘twin sister’ because of its similarities in mass, size, composition, density and gravity. The mission to the planet will focus on studying the surface and its sub-surface, atmospheric chemistry and the interactions with solar radiation or solar winds.

The mission has got many excited. “We have received great response from across the world, and more than 20 payloads planned,” said Isro chairman K Sivan, who was in Sriharikota on Friday to address 108 school students as part of the Yuvika-2019 Young Scientist Programme.

“Aditya L1 and Xposat missions have been defined. The rest are in planning stages,” Sivan added. According to him, Aditya L1, the Sun mission, may play a key role in understanding and predicting climate change on Earth. The payloads will study the solar corona. “Corona has an influence on the upper atmosphere and that impacts climate change on earth. If we can understand the solar corona better, we may be able to predict climate change,” he said.

The launch may happen earlier than planned, as Sivan said the spacecraft will lift off by mid-2020 and will be placed in a ‘ libration orbit’, which is about 1.5 million km from Earth. It is about 1% of the distance between Sun and Earth, where the gravity of the two celestial objects equalises. Placing it in such an orbit allows the spacecraft to circle along with the earth, thereby constantly facing Sun.

In a presentation made during the 60th session of United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Isro scientists had said that Xposat will be a five-year mission, carrying a polarimeter instrument made by Raman Research Institute to measure cosmic radiation. The spacecraft will be placed in a circular 500-700km orbit.

For this year, Isro’s biggest mission, Chandrayaan-2 is all set for a July launch. Sivan said the spacecraft, including the orbitor, lander and rover, will be flight-ready by the end of May. “The components are in the final stages of testing. Though we would be ready by end of May, we have to wait till July due to an eclipse,” he said.

