ISRO open to manned space mission

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is open to considering a manned mission in space after reaching a national consensus on such a project, according to its chairman G Madhavan Nair.

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.