India looks beyond moon

Dilip Ghosh

The country’s first lunar craft, Chandrayaan-1 is now cruising down to its designated circular orbit, 100 kilometers from the moon’s surface. Soon after it entered the moon’s gravitational field on the 8th of this month the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, (ISRO), Dr. G Madhavan Nair announced in Bangalore that they had created history. No, other nation has succeeded in sending its lunar craft in the first attempt. He further added, it will take about five days to stabilise the craft’s operations and the Indian made Moon Impact Probe onboard it will hit the lunar surface on 15th, when the Indian tri-colour will also be lowered. The specific job assigned to this Probe is to identify the possible sites for future landing of the country’s second lunar craft Chandrayaan-2 which is scheduled for launch in 2012. During its two-year lifetime, the remote sensing satellite, Chandrayaan will not only look for different metals and radioactive elements on the moon’s surface but also ice and a potentially rich source of energy called Helium -3. One wonders, why the satellite took 18 days to reach the moon’s gravitational field though the moon is only about four lakh kilometers away. It was launched on the 22nd of last month from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on Andhra Pradesh coast with the ISRO’s sophisticated rocket, PSLV-C11. This is because ISRO decided to send the craft via orbital path instead of directly, as it didn’t want to take any risk in its maiden lunar mission. In fact, of the 65 lunar missions so far, quite a few of the Russian Luna series and the US Ranger series of satellites bypassed the moon. The launching of Chandrayaan is surely a big event as it marked India ’s entry into the elite space club - only four nations and the European space Agency have done this feat before. Several world leaders and scientists across the world took note of it. The US President’s spokesperson Ms Dana Perino said that it’s very encouraging for India. Surely, it’s very exciting. The US President-elect Mr Barack Obama even described it as a challenge and called for revitalizing his country’s space program. The former President Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam said that every Indian should be proud of this national achievement. Incidentally, the Indian success comes when the global scientific interest in the moon has begun to revive. One may recall that after the Apollo missions that ended in 1972 the interest ebbed. It was rekindled for the first time in September 2003 when European Space Agency launched its lunar mission SMART-1. This was followed by Japan and China launching their moon missions - Kaguya and Chang’e - in September and October last year. Now, NASA is also planning to send a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter some time early next year. But, why this renewed interest? Surely, the immediate objective of these moon missions is to build a human settlement on the Mars. The scientists say, Mars could be a suitable habitat for humans because its gravity is similar to the earth’s and it has an atmosphere. They say, once the lunar base is built, there will be a lot of saving on the earth’s resources for outer space exploration because the spacecrafts will then be refueled using lunar resources. The President of the International Academy of Astronautics, Dr. Edward C Stone says, there are several reasons for the current interest in moon. There is need for knowing what kind of physiological and psychological effects a long lunar stay will have on human body. The knowledge is essential for building a human habitat on the Mars. A long stay will also enable us to know more about the things available there. Besides, it will help us to develop suitable technologies and engineering systems needed to operate in space. Dr. Stone, who is also the chief scientist of Voyager at the NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is very optimistic. He added that a time would come when we will have technology and a human mission to the Mars will become inevitable. It will surely happen but I can’t tell you when. Referring to various exploratory missions to the red planet, he further said that the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter with its camera called High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment has already begun the job. It takes photographs of the Martian surface to find out the most interesting place for landing of rovers that would be launched in the coming years. For ISRO, the successful launch of Chandrayaan will open up new business opportunities as it will lead to further sophistication of Indian Space systems like INSAT and IRS. The total project cost of the Chandrayaan is about 86 million dollars, which is less than even the cost of a Boeing 747 aircraft. By spending this amount if the ISRO can produce more sophisticated satellites and sell them in the international market, surely it makes good commercial sense. Besides, the improved technology resulting from this project will also help upgrade the quality of life of the Indian people in many ways. Finally and more importantly, it is imperative for ISRO to continue to add to its knowledge about the moon, as without that India will not be able to participate in any international outer space exploration projects. Keeping in view of country’s future needs, the ISRO has, therefore, entered into an agreement with its Russian counterpart on 12 November last year. According to which India will build the launch vehicle and lunar orbiter for Chandrayaan-2, while Russia will build its landing module and moon rover to bring lunar soil for the ISRO. But, that is not the end of the story. By 2020 when the US and Russia will have permanent bases on the moon, India may also have sent a manned mission there. (PIB Feature) *Science Writer Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of PIB.