Chandrayaan-2, the proposed second Indian mission to moon, would undertake 'extremely good' experiments and try out new technologies but accommodating foreign payloads on board does not appear to be a possibility at this stage.The first edition of the moon odyssey had six foreign payloads and five Indian ones on board but heavy orbiter (satellite) and lander weight this time has put constraints on the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in terms of carry-load of instruments.
"One of the problems was weight consideration. Weight limitation is an overall boundary within which we have to work", Prof U R Rao, who chaired the national committee of experts drawn from ISRO centres, academic institutions and R&D laboratories which finalised the payloads to be flown on board Chandrayaan-2 (orbiter and rover), said.
With a heavy orbiter and lander, the weight of the payloads cannot exceed 40 kilograms.
The Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft weighs about 2,650 kg at lift-off of which the orbiter weight is about 1,400 kg and lander's about 1,250 kg.
Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/chandrayaan2-will-try-out-very-new-ideas-technologies/678476/
