By Bernama,
New Delhi : India is gearing up for the launch of its maiden moon mission Chandrayaan-I later this year and the government is actively considering sending a man into space, Minister of State in PMO Prithviraj Chavan said Wednesday.
Integration of 11 experiments — five Indian and six foreign — is proceeding satisfactorily and scientists are looking forward to a launch in the third quarter, the Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted him as saying, in replying to supplementary questions in the Lower house of Parliament.
He said serious studies by scientists are going on to explore possibilities of putting a human into space.
“The proposal is under active consideration by the government,” Chavan said adding that Rs 95 crore had been sanctioned to conduct a detailed project report to make the cost-benefit analysis.
ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair had recently said that the report was ready and would be submitted to the government soon.
On the moon mission, Chavan said Chandrayaan-I spacecraft will orbit around the moon and during the two year mission period will provide high resolution images of the lunar surface.
“It will provide a three-dimensional atlas of the near and far side of the moon, chemical and mineralogical map of the entire lunar surface to study distribution of mineral and chemical elements,” he said.
Chavan said ISRO had accomplished 20 major space missions during the 10th Five Year Plan and the number of communication transponders was increased from 100 to 200 during the plan period, exceeding the target of 175.