ISRO organises the National Science Meet on Chandrayaan-4 Lunar Sample Return Mission
Bengaluru, April 24. On April 16, 2025, ISRO organised a national meet on the potential aspects of lunar sample science in the context of the forthcoming Chandrayaan-4 mission (planned for launch in year 2027-2028 timeframe), which aims at returning lunar samples back to the Earth. This national meet was attended by the lunar science community engaged in analysing meteorite samples, terrestrial analogs, lunar soil simulants, as well as the scientists who are keen to constraint the remote sensing observations of the lunar surface with ground-truth experiments with the returned-samples. The participants comprised about 50 scientists; almost 50% of them represented 12 research and academic institutes (outside the Department of Space), including private academic institute, across the country.
During the opening remarks, Shri M. Ganesh Pillai, Scientific Secretary, ISRO, emphasised on the significance of this national meet in the context of the Chandrayaan-4 mission, fitting in the overall roadmap of India’s lunar exploration programme as a major milestone, which would eventually lead to India’s first human-spaceflight mission to the Moon by the year 2040.
Dr. Tirtha Pratim Das, Director of the Science Programme Office, ISRO Headquarters, elaborated on the context of the national meet, and the roles of the Indian lunar researchers towards a science-driven, well-planned lunar sample-return mission. Dr. Anil Bhardwaj, Director, Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad appraised the scientific community about the legacy of PRL for the analysis of the lunar, as well as meteorite samples. There were deliberations from the teams from the U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), ISRO on the plans for the lunar sample curation and analysis facilities, as well as on the Chandrayaan-4 mission. The detailed deliberations, made by scientists and academicians from several national institutions and academia, addressed the aspects of outstanding problems in lunar science, scientifically rewarding potential lunar landing sites, as well as the advanced analysis of the returned-samples.
