| Speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of unveiling the bust of Vikram Sarabhai at Antariksh Bhavan, ISRO headquarters, Nair said that though a manned mission was theoretically feasible, the space community was trying to examine what needed to be done to launch such a programme. |
| Nair revealed that ISRO was in the process of identifying technologies required for a manned mission, which could take seven to eight years to materialise. According to current ISRO estimates, the cost of a manned space mission could be over Rs 10,000 crore. |
| "The question whether India should go for a manned mission is being debated. A similar debate was held before we embarked on the proposed unmanned lunar mission (Chandrayaan-1) to conduct scientific experiments from the moon's orbit." This mission, slated for 2006-07, bears a price tag of nearly Rs 300 crore. |
| "Though a manned mission is feasible, we need to develop a lot of new technologies to build a life-support system, a space capsule with safety features to survive and a recovery operation to complete the mission," he added. |
| "Before we embark on such a mission, a national debate and consensus is required on it. If it is decided, we in ISRO do not want to lag behind in our preparation, though such a programme is going to be very, very expensive for the country," Nair warned. |
| Nair said ISRO was of the view that what could be accomplished by a manned mission, could also be achieved by an unmanned mission with instrumentation and remote operations from ground stations. But it was for the nation to decide what it wanted. |
| Scientists recall that the US mission Apollo, which landed man on the moon for the first time, did not yield any significant scientific advantage. |
| However, it did wonders for US morale which was severely dented by the lead the Soviets took by putting a man (Yuri Gagarin) in space for the first time during the Cold War days. |
Top Section
Explore Business Standard