The Hindu : Front Page : Lunar mission to help long-term collaboration

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 14, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

Lunar mission to help long-term collaboration

Vladimir Radyuhin

Russia, U.S. have plans to set up permanent bases on the moon by 2020
Helium-3, a highly efficient fuel, is abundant on the moon

MOSCOW: A joint lunar mission that India and Russia had agreed to undertake may pave the way for long-term, far-ranging collaboration between them in moon exploration and tapping of its natural resources.

The agreement signed on Monday by the space chiefs of the two countries on the sidelines of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit here provides for an unmanned laboratory to the moon in 2011-12.

India will build a launch vehicle and a lunar orbiter, while Russia will contribute a landing module and a moon rover packed with scientific instruments. The mission will take off from the Indian space centre.

The moon mission will be a cross between the two countries’ phase-2 programmes for lunar research, Chandrayaan in India and Luna-Globe in Russia. In phase 1, India and Russia will proceed alone.

Under Chandrayaan-I India, in the first half of 2008, will launch a space probe that will circle the moon but will not land on its surface. Foreign input into Chandrayaan-I is limited to two research instruments built by the United States and Bulgaria.

Russia’s first Luna-Globe mission, scheduled for 2010, does not envisage landing any spacecraft on the moon either. In the second stage, Russia plans to soft-land a 400-kg sophisticated moon rover, which will be carried to the moon aboard an Indian rocket.

The Russian programme also provides for phase-3 and phase-4 missions to the moon between 2012 and 2015. These may also become joint India-Russia projects as the November 12 accord will be effective till 2017 and can be extended by mutual agreement. According to the head of Russia’s Lavochkin Spacecraft Design Bureau Georgy Polishchuk, in phase-4, the Luna-Globe programme is planned to look for mineral resources on the moon.

Russia and the U.S. have announced plans to set up permanent bases on the moon by 2020 to mine Helium-3, a highly efficient fuel for thermonuclear reactors which is scarce on the earth and abundant on the moon.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page