ISRO Shukrayaan Mission To Planet Venus Will Carry Sweden's Science Instrument

Sweden is collaborating with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) by getting onboard India's Venus orbiter mission ¡®Shukrayaan.¡¯ The partnership will see Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) send a scientific instrument meant to explore Venus, onboard India¡¯s flight vehicle.

Venus (Representative Image)

The collaboration has been confirmed by the Ambassador of Sweden to India, Klas Molin. In an interaction with PTI, he said, "IRF's satellite instrument Venusian Neutrals Analyzer (VNA) will study how the charged particles from the Sun interact with the atmosphere and exosphere of the planet."

"The new Venus mission means that the collaboration between IRF and ISRO continues," he added.

ISRO¡¯s flight to Venus

ISRO had earlier set a June 2023 date for launching its mission to Venus. The Indian space agency has even shortlisted 20 space-based experiment proposals for the same. These projects include "collaborative contributions" from Russia, France, Sweden and Germany, meant to take off aboard a GSLV Mk II rocket.

However, quoting ISRO officials, a PTI report says that the mission has been delayed due to the pandemic that began earlier this year. "we are currently reviewing this mission timeline due to delays arising from the pandemic situation", an ISRO official said. "Future launch opportunity is either in 2024 or 2026".

Partnership with Sweden

The newly announced collaboration between the IRF and ISRO will be the second of its kind. Swedish officials say that the first generation of a series of miniatured ion and ENA (Energetic Neutral Atoms) instruments, named SARA (Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer), was launched on board ISRO¡¯s Chandrayaan-1. SARA used two sensors to explore the moon in 2008-2009.

The VNA will be the ninth generation of this series by IRF. For the collaboration, Molin said Sweden has quite a lot to provide, both from its institutions and from space tech companies. He also pointed out India¡¯s clear ambition to explore the other planets and to send humans to space.

Processed Views of Venus from Mariner 10 (Image: NASA)

"This segment includes to a large extent R&D effort, both regarding space technologies and services," Molin said. "The unique Space Tech Testbed capability at Esrange can also carry out even more advanced tests of equipment and technologies that should be used in exploration campaigns", he said.

Once it takes off, ISRO's Shukrayaan mission will investigate the surface processes and shallow subsurface stratigraphy on Venus. In addition, it will identify the solar wind interaction with Venusian Ionosphere, and study the structure, composition and dynamics of the atmosphere, as per ISRO.