Chandrayaan-4: ISRO’s Strategic Roadmap for Lunar Sample Return and Future Manned Missions

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has recently outlined the mission architecture for Chandrayaan-4, a landmark project that aims to return lunar soil samples to Earth. Building on the success of the Chandrayaan-3 soft landing, this mission represents a significant escalation in technical complexity and strategic ambition for India's space program. Unlike its predecessors, Chandrayaan-4 will utilize a two-phase launch strategy involving India’s most reliable rockets, the LVM3 and the PSLV. The mission architecture comprises five distinct modules: the Ascender Module, Descender Module, Re-entry Module, Transfer Module, and the Orbiter. This multi-module approach is necessitated by the requirement to not only land on the lunar surface but also to lift off from it, perform a docking maneuver in lunar orbit, and safely return a payload to Earth’s atmosphere.