Making a presentation on ISRO’s future missions at the Akash Tattva conference held in Dehradun, Anil Bhardwaj, Director of the Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory, said the space agency also planned to send a probe to Mars.

Bhardwaj stressed it was in talks with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for sending a lunar rover to explore the permanent shadow region of the moon.

As per the initial plans, a lunar lander and rover built by ISRO will be put into orbit by a Japanese rocket with a planned landing near the south pole of the moon. “The rover will then travel to the permanent shadow region of the moon which never sees sunlight,” Bhardwaj said.

So far, India has launched 381 satellites for different countries, including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden.

ISRO’s list of projects praises the Chandrayaan-3 manned space mission, scheduled for mid-2023, with two unmanned test flights, Chandrayaan-1 and Chandrayaan-2, according to the Press Trust of India agency.

Bhardwaj said the Aditya L-1 would a unique mission in which a 400-kg class satellite carrying the payload would be placed in an orbit around the Sun in such a way that it can continuously view the star from a point called the Lagrange Point L-1.

Bhardwaj said the Aditya L-1 and the Chandrayaan-3 missions would be taken up on priority as early as next year and were likely to be followed by the mission to Venus and the mission to the moon with JAXA.

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