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M. Ramesh

Sriharikota, Oct. 22 The Indian Space Research Organisation proposes to put an Indian in space by 2015. The project, which will cost Rs 12,000 crore, has been approved by the Space Commission and is awaiting the approval of the Government of India, G. Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO, said today.

Addressing a press conference after the launch of the PSLV-C11 rocket, which is carrying the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, Nair said that ISRO had hitherto been busy with satellite launches that would have a direct bearing on the quality of Indian lives. “Now we have got some breathing time and we are looking at how we could design a capsule that could carry two human beings onboard a GSLV rocket,” he said.

The GSLV is a much bigger and more powerful rocket than the PSLV.

The objective of the ‘manned mission’ is to take an Indian astronaut to space and not anywhere near the moon. However, the task is complex because the rocket will have to be made much more reliable and the spacecraft must be capable of re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere, without burning out.

For carrying humans, the GSLV needs to be modified, mainly in terms of building in redundancies so as to enhance the reliability of the vehicle to almost 100 per cent.

Nair said that ISRO had already worked out what needs to be done, but these would have to be “implemented, tested and validated”.

Meanwhile, ISRO is getting ready with Chandrayaan-II, a spacecraft that will soft-land a lander and a rover on the lunar surface. The rover will then collect samples, analyse them and send results.

“As soon as the Chandrayaan-I begins its work, our work on Chandrayaan-II will begin,” one senior ISRO scientist said.

A ‘Chandrayaan-III’ is on the horizon, but is just a concept today. This spacecraft will land on the moon and bring back samples from the moon to the earth.

Alongside, ISRO is working on a project to send a spacecraft to take a peek at Mars. “Mars is our natural next destination,” Nair said, adding that the GSLV rocket could carry a “reasonably sized” spacecraft to the red planet.

As ISRO’s scientists are putting together the mission, the organisation is looking for proposals for experiments from the scientific community.

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