ISRO aims to place the spacecraft in an elliptical parking orbit of 170 km x 36,000 km.
Credit: PTI Photo
Bengaluru: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced March 29, 2028 as the launch date for its ambitious Venus Orbiter Mission (VOM).
VOM, to be launched on the Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM-3), will involve a transfer time of 112 days for a scheduled arrival at the final orbit on July 19, 2028. The Union Cabinet had formally cleared VOM and the Chandrayaan-4 mission on September 18.
An experts review committee has recommended for the Rs-1,236 crore mission 16 Indian payloads, two Indian-international collaborative payloads, and one international payload.
ISRO aims to place the spacecraft in an elliptical parking orbit of 170 km x 36,000 km. VOM will explore the planet's atmosphere, surface, and its interaction with the Sun. Among the mission’s key scientific objectives are high-resolution mapping of Venusian surface topography and studying the solar X-ray spectrum near Venus.
VOM is also being pitched as a technology demonstration for ISRO, in testing the aerobraking and thermal management techniques in the harsh Venusian environment.
The mission’s international payload is Venus InfraRed Atmospheric gases Linker (VIRAL), developed by the Space Research Institute, Russia. Venus Ionospheric and Solar Wind particle AnalySer (VISWAS) will have one of its components developed by IRI, Sweden, and Radio Anatomy of Venus Ionosphere (RAVI) will have a German team as collaborator.
After the cruise phase, Venus Orbit Injection will be at 500 km x 60,000 km. ISRO said aerobraking will be employed for six to eight months from VOI to achieve the desired 200 X600 km orbit with an inclination of around 90º, from where the science studies can be carried out for five years.