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India’s polar satellite vehicle souring into space in October 2001 |
By
Danish A Khan, Special to IslamOnline
NEW
DELHI, August 14 (IslamOnline) – “The moon is within India’s
reach,” stated a recently released report of the country’s lunar
mission task force. “This country has the technical capability to
launch an unmanned flight to the moon in five years, i.e., 2007,” it
said.
The
report was recently submitted to Dr Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, chairman
of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
Dr
Kasturirangan, an eminent space scientist, is also the chairman of
India’s Space Commission and secretary to the Government of India in
the Department of Space. Under his stewardship, India has positioned
itself as one of the major players in global space technology, and is
vying to become a space superpower in the coming years.
The
task force was constituted to undertake the feasibility study of sending
a mission to the moon. Constituted in 2001, it is headed by George
Joseph, former director of the Space Applications Center, and has
prominent space scientists PC Agarwal, N Bhandari and K Thyagrajan as
its members.
The
chief of the task force, Joseph said, “Ours is the official report on
India’s mission to the moon. Our studies clearly indicate that this
country has the technical capability to launch this mission and place a
satellite in the lunar orbit for carrying out scientific studies.”
Dr
Kasturirangan said, “Given our current stage of development in the
field of space technology, we are definitely capable of embarking upon a
mission to the moon. We already have the spacecraft needed. Now all we
need to do is to optimize its performance.”
The
moon lies 3,84,467 km away from Earth. However, its distance is still 10
times farther than the distance which ISRO has till now attempted to
reach.
The
recent reports of the discovery of ice on some of the moon’s craters
has fired the imagination of the world and has renewed its interest in
the moon – to explore all that still remains uninvestigated.
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India’s geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle before it went into space in March 2001 |
The
Indian space program was initiated in 1972. India’s mission to the
moon would expectedly be its first foray into deep-space exploration
ever since the ambitious space program took wings.
In
satellite launch technology, India has gained considerable expertise.
Already, the country possesses ability to launch small satellites of
about 75 kg in a fly-by mission. It also has the relevant technology to
even place a 140 kg satellite in an orbit around the moon in order to
conduct scientific experiments and study the moon’s core.
The
successful launch of the country’s first developmental flight of
Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) earlier this year has
earned prestige for the nation. It has put India into the elite club of
five other countries capable of launching their own satellites.
Besides
GSLV, there is the successful launch of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
(PSLV). In May 2001, significant strides were made when simultaneously
three satellites, including a German and South Korean, were launched.
Sources in ISRO said that the PSLV could be suitably modified to send a
530 kg spacecraft as a fly-by mission or a 350 kg spacecraft to orbit
the moon.
The
task force said that PSLV would be used for the lunar mission. A budget
of around Rs 4 billion is involved. Setting up the deep space network is
a part of the project.
Space
scientists overseeing the program have drawn elaborate blueprints
pertaining to the fulfillment of the lunar missions’ objectives. The
first phase of the mission include a stereoscopic high resolution
imaging and an X-ray and Gamma ray imaging of the moon's crust. This
would be done through a polar orbiter.
During
the second stage of the mission, a lunar lander would be involved for
carrying out magnetic and seismic studies of the moon’s surface as
well as conducting a chemical study of its South Pole for searching
traces of water and, possibly, life on the moon. The third phase of the
mission would undertake the study of a core sample brought from the
South Pole by the earlier missions, besides conducting studies of the
backside of the moon.
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A collage showing various activities of India’s space research organization (ISRO) |
Even
before the mission to the moon is to take place, a section of scientists
in ISRO, the country’s premier space organization, have expressed
reservations. On the one hand, ISRO officials have said that its
research would cover those areas of the moon which are still unexplored.
However, other ISRO scientists have expressed their disagreement, and
want to do something new and path-breaking.
“Why
don’t we work on something path-breaking? Why do we need to do
something that has already been done 30 years ago and many times
over?” says Dr HS Mukunda, chairman of the Aerospace Department of the
Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.
According
to ISRO scientists, an international race to reinvestigate the moon is
likely to be fuelled, given the earlier reports of the possible presence
of water which is essential to sustain life. Also, India is eager to
study the moon because of the abundance of helium, considered the
cleanest fuel, they said.
