The Hindu : Karnataka News : Scientist speaks of satellite launch from moon

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Scientist speaks of satellite launch from moon

Staff Reporter

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

Interaction: M. Annadurai, Project Director, Chandrayaan, (second from right), and Venugopal K.R., Principal, UVCE (right), with students at ‘Kagada 2009’, sixth national students’ conference, at the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering in Bangalore on Saturday.

BANGALORE: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist and Project Director of Chandrayaan-1 M Annadurai said the moon could emerge as a possible launch-pad for satellites to carry out deep-space exploration in future.

Fielding queries from students after inaugurating the sixth national student conference at University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) here on Saturday, Dr. Annadurai said gravitational force on moon was far less than earth’s. Moon’s gravitational force was six times less than earth, he pointed out.

Instead of launching satellites from earth, space scientists could consider launching them from the moon to explore other satellite like mars, said Dr. Annadurai, who was the project director for India’s maiden moon mission.

To another question on the doomsday predictions, the ISRO scientist said there was little scientific basis for such forecasts.

“If such a thing has to happen, the earth has to be hit by an asteroid. Even in that case, we will know about it years in advance,” Dr. Annadurai said.

Dr. Annadurai denied that Chandrayaan-I had failed. “Chandrayaan-I had not failed. The mission had met its objectives. Everybody wants to live for 100 years. If one has met the objectives in 50 years, then the life is not a failure,” he said.

When he was asked whether ISRO was planning a manned mission to moon, Dr Annadurai said sending a man to moon was the “logical progression” of the India’s moon mission.

“But right now, ISRO was concentrating on Chandrayaan-2”, he said.

He said Chandrayaan-2, which is scheduled to be completed by 2012-13, will help in analysis of mineral composition and carrying out terrain mapping.

“The difference between the two moon missions is that Chandrayaan-2 will actually land on the surface of the moon while Chandrayaan-1 was merely orbiting the moon”, he said.

The Rs. 425-crore Chandrayaan-2 would consist of payloads from India as well as Russia.

Chandrayaan-2 would comprise a spacecraft and a landing platform with two moon rovers – one each from India and Russia.

The moon rovers would move on the lunar surface, map the terrain and send the data to the spacecraft that would orbit the moon, he said.

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