RF to test landing platform of India 2nd lunar spacecraft in 2011.

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BANGALORE, August 27 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia will test a landing
platform of the unmanned spacecraft of the Indian lunar research mission
Chandrayaan-2 in 2011. Russian specialists from the Lavochkin
research-and-production center are creating the landing platform, deputy
chief of the Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) Anatoly Shilov said at the
international exhibition of advanced space technologies Space Expo-2010
here on Friday.
Chandrayaan-2 is an Indian unmanned lunar research project that is
being implemented with Russia's assistance. The Indian unmanned spacecraft
will bring a mobile laboratory to the lunar surface. A landing platform
will be equipped with three robotic arms that will take lunar ground
samples, Shilov noted. "We will test it in October 2011 by the means of a
launch of another spacecraft Phobos-Grunt. This launch will make a
successful performance of the Chandrayaan-2 mission quite more probable,"
he underlined.
The Chandrayaan-2 mission does not give an opportunity to start the
exploration of the Moon, the Roskosmos deputy chief said. "The research of
this planet is just in view, several missions should be sent to pass to
the lunar exploration," he pointed out. Meanwhile, Shilov noted that it
was difficult to say for sure whether the Chandrayaan-2 project would be
implemented in 2013 as scheduled. "Many stages should be passed before a
launch of the spacecraft," he added.
India decided to launch a new research lunar expedition after a
successful launch of the lunar satellite Chandrayaan-1 in 2008. The Indian
Space Research Organization intends to implement the project in
cooperation with Roskosmos. Under the preliminary schedule the
Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft will be launched to the Moon in 2013.
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