UPA may not clear manned mission plan: MoS Chavan

ISRO, which launched Chandrayaan-I, India’s first mission to moon earlier this week, has publicly announced that it was preparing for a manned mission to space by 2015, the likely cost of which would be Rs 12,000 crore.

The idea for such a mission was mooted quite some time back and it has received the endorsement of not just the scientific community but also the Space Commission.

ISRO had prepared a voluminous study report detailing the technical feasibility of this most ambitious project and also highlighted the tremendous benefits that are likely to accrue from it. This feasibility report, which received the backing of the Space Commission, was submitted to the government about two months back.

“As of now, we are waiting for the government’s approval for the project,” said S Satish, ISRO’s Director of Press and Public Relations.

Chavan said the government was still doing a cost-benefit analysis of the project. It was carefully studying the various implications for such a huge mission.

He said the current economic environment was also restraining the government from committing itself to such a major financial decision. “Considering the current economic situation, I don’t think many people would be very enthusiastic to undertake such a big financial commitment,” he said.

ISRO’s other space missions so far have generally been quite low-cost with Chandrayaan-I, which entailed a cost of just Rs 386 crores, widely believed to be the cheapest ever lunar mission. The budget for Chandrayaan-2, a lander and rover which is scheduled for 2011-12, is just a fraction more at Rs 425 crore.

But a manned mission would be an extremely complex project, very different from everything that ISRO has done so far.

Chavan said there was no danger of the project not getting cleared and pointed out that work in this direction was already continuing.

“Such a complex mission cannot be executed in a single day. The preparations have to go on. I am sure government clearance will also come at a suitable time after examining all the issues involved.”

ISRO had completed one major milestone in this direction by successfully completing the Space Recovery Experiment in January last year. A space capsule was launched by the PSLV-C7 and successfully brought back to earth and descended over the Bay of Bengal. This was the first such technology demonstration of ISRO’s capability to send a manned mission.

Tracking Chandrayaan DAY 5

Chandrayaan-I was on Monday moving around the earth in the elliptical orbit that it was put into on Sunday morning after the third orbit-raising manoeuvre.

In this orbit, the spacecraft is supposed to take 73-and-a-half hours to complete one revolution around the earth. One full revolution will happen in the early hours of Thursday. Till then, Chandrayaan-I would not be disturbed from its current orbit.

The next orbit-raising manoeuvre, to put the spacecraft in even a higher orbit, is slated to be performed on Thursday, after the completion of one revolution. All on-board equipment functioning normally.