Chandrayaan-2

 Chandrayaan-2  is India's second lunar exploration mission.

 Developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO),

 the mission is proposed to be launched to the Moon in 2015 by a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), includes a lunar orbiter, a lander and a lunar rover, all developed by India. 

 Initially the mission was a joint venture of ISRO and its Russian counterpart Roskosmos, but the latter withdrew from the mission failing to provide a lander within the proposed time.

According to ISRO, this mission will use and test various new technologies and conduct new experiments^.

  The wheeled rover will move on the lunar surface and will pick up soil or rock samples for on-site chemical analysis. 

The data will be relayed to Earth through the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter^.

History

The Indian Government approved the mission in a meeting of the Union Cabinet held on 18 September 2008 chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
On November 12, 2007, representatives of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) and ISRO signed an agreement for the two agencies to work together on the Chandrayaan-2 project.


ISRO will have the prime responsibility for the orbiter and rover, while Roskosmos will be responsible for the lander.
The design of the space craft was completed in August 2009, with scientists of both countries conducting a joint review.
The launch date might slip because the loss of the Fobos-Grunt mission which was a planned as a test for the Russian landing system.

Current status

Although ISRO has finalized the payload for Chandrayaan-2,the mission was postponed to 2014, and was expected to be further rescheduled to 2016 because of a delay in the construction of the Russian lander.


The delay came in wake of the failure of the Russian Phobos-Grunt mission to Mars, reason being technical aspects connected with the Phobos-Grunt mission were also used in the lunar projects, which need to be reviewed.
When Russia cited its inability to provide the lander even by 2015, India decided to develop the lunar mission independently.