After a successful Chandrayaan-3 mission, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is now setting its sights on the next big step in space exploration: the Chandrayaan-4 mission.

Unlike its predecessors, Chandrayaan-4 is expected to bring back lunar samples to Earth, as reported by EconomicTimes.

During a recent address to the Indian Tropical Meteorology Institute, Nilesh Desai, Director of the Space Applications Centre (SAC/ISRO), highlighted the Chandrayaan-4 mission as a significant advancement. The mission will involve the collection of samples from the lunar surface.

The spacecraft will travel to the moon, land, collect samples, and then connect to another module in space. The module will then return to Earth orbit. As the two modules approach Earth, they will separate, with one part returning to Earth and the other will keep orbiting the planet. Desai described the mission as ambitious, stating, "Hopefully, in the next five to seven years, we will meet the challenge of bringing samples from the moon."

For return to Earth, Desai said that the mission would need two launch vehicles containing four modules (Transfer module, Lander Module, Ascender Module and Re-entry module). RM and TM would be Parked in the lunar orbit and two will go down from which Ascender Module will get separated from lander module and would collect the sample.

Chandrayaan-4 is expected to be more complex than its predecessor. Desai revealed that the Chandrayaan-4 plans to land a much heavier 350 kg rover on the moon. In comparison, the Chandrayaan-3 rover weighed only 30kg. Additionally, the mission aims to perform a challenging landing on the moon's rim, an unexplored region. The rover will also explore a larger area, measuring 1000m x 1000m, compared to Chandrayaan-3's 500m x 500m.