India and Russia are very near to launch the joint moon mission led by India Chandrayaan 2 (Moon Craft). Result of the agreement signed between Indian and Russian space agencies on November 12, 2007 and approved by the Government of Indian on 18th September, 2008, It is is the second Indian unmanned mission and has a projected cost of 425 crore (US$ 90million) compared to last mission's 384 crore. Proposed to be launched in 2013 by India's indigenous GSLV MK-III (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) will carry a payload of 2650KG including an orbiter, lander and rover.

Sole responsibility of the orbiter is on India which consists of  five payloads of which three are new and rest two are the improved versions of the previous mission. The sole responsibility of the lander and orbiter is on Russia which will make soft landing on the earth's surface unlike the Indian MIP (Moon Impact Probe) of previous mission, it was made to crash land on the surface, which initially detected the water on the moon and was then confirmed by NASA's M3. The wheeled rover powered by solar energy will collect sand and rock samples on the moon surface for on-site chemical analysis.

Apart from five payloads for orbiter, India is sending another two scientific payloads for the rover to carry out elemental analysis of the lunar surface near the landing site. Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft weighs about 2,650 kg at lift-off of which the orbiter weight is about 1,400 kg and lander weight is about 1,250 kg. Development of the subsystems of the orbiter and the rover is in progress at ISRO centres in Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram and Ahmedabad. (Source: ISRO official website)

List of payloads for Chandrayan 2:

The five recommended payloads of Chandrayaan-2 orbiter are as follows:

• Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer (CLASS) from ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), Bangalore and Solar X-ray Monitor (XSM) from Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad for mapping the major elements present on the lunar surface.
• L and S band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) from Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad for probing the first few tens of meters of the lunar surface for the presence of different constituents including water ice. SAR is expected to provide further evidence confirming the presence of water ice below the shadowed regions of the moon.
• Imaging IR Spectrometer (IIRS) from SAC, Ahmedabad for the mapping of lunar surface over a wide wavelength range for the study of minerals, water molecules and hydroxyl present.
• Neutral Mass Spectrometer (ChACE2) from Space Physics Laboratory (SPL), Thiruvananthapuram to carry out a detailed study of the lunar exosphere.
• Terrain Mapping Camera2 (TMC2) from SAC, Ahmedabad for preparing a three-dimensional map essential for studying the lunar mineralogy and geology.

          The two scientific payloads on Chandrayaan-2 rover are:

• Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) from Laboratory for Electro Optic Systems (LEOS), Bangalore
• Alpha Particle Induced X ray Spectroscope (APIXS) from PRL, Ahmedabad.

It is wrongly believed that Chaandrayaan 2 is the mission to complete the work left by Chandrayaan 1 Since it had lost communication signal with the ground. The mission was approved even before the launching of the first. Almost 97% of the work was completed by the mission 1 which had given enough information to start the mission 2. As the first mission made one of the largest discovery in the space of finding water in the moon, much is expected from this mission as well.
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