New Delhi: Indian Space Research Organisation or Isro is literally seeking to reach out for the stars, setting one target after another for its ambitious space programme.
While the premier space agency is already going ahead with its unmanned moon mission, titled Chandrayaan-1, planned for early next year, yet another mission to moon is already on the table – this time to send a Lander to the lunar surface. This is likely to be followed by the much-talked-about manned mission to the moon.
Chandrayaan-1 is planned for launch on board India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The 525-kg satellite will be placed in the 100-km polar orbit around the moon and it will have a lifetime of two years.
Isro Chairman G Madhavan Nair told PTI on Monday that Chandrayaan-2, to be undertaken by 2010, would have a proper Lander, which would land on the lunar surface and try to explore the surface in far more detail.
Chandrayaan-1 is for mapping applications and this satellite is equipped with remote-sensing cameras. "Chandrayaan-2 will have a Lander, which would touch down on the lunar surface and pick up samples," Nair said.
He said the government has given the go ahead to Isro to undertake a detailed study and submit a firm project report on the manned mission to space.
"The study project has been cleared," he said. "We are going into every detail regarding technologies involved... whatever precision needed... what type of human resources we need... all these will be sharply focused," he said.
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