Bharat sets sight on Chandrama as base for space activities
Bharat became the fourth country to make a successful robotic Chandrama landing this year with its Chandrayaan-3 mission. Following this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in October that Bharat should aim for “new and ambitious goals,” including putting astronauts on Chandrama by 2040.
The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chairman, S Somanath on Thursday called to build a long-term human outpost on Chandrama and use it as a base to further stimulate interest in human spaceflights.
He contended that the lunar surface could potentially be used for strategic activities. “We also look at Chandrama as a base when you look at human access to Chandrama and continued access to Chandrama in the long term.
It also has an economic impact on our space activity,” Somanath said on the permanent presence of humans on the lunar soil while speaking on the second day of the ongoing Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit.
Citing an example, ISRO said that strategic activity in the future will not be around Prithvi alone.
“It will be around sometimes, based on Chandrama . I think some of the people who are in that domain will be able to understand it a little deeper,” he told the gathering.
“So we have a lot to connect with that type of vision that the Prime Minister has given. It’s equally important to don’t forget Prithvi,” he said on a lighter note.
A lot of work continues to be done on Prithvi, he asserted.
“We continue to work with a lot of ministries and departments. In the last year or so, we have aggregated the demand of the country in terms of agriculture, weather forecasting, disaster warning, water resources, cartography, strategic intelligence gathering, supplying to various users and almost 50 plus spacecraft or even more, 100 of which you have to build over the next five to ten years,” the ISRO chief said.
In a stellar display of prowess, Bharat soared to new heights in 2023 with the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the South Pole of Chandrama and the launch of Aditya-L1, India’s first solar mission.
These milestones not only secured India’s standing in the global space economy but also fuelled the engines for the private space sector in Bharat .
Among other feats Bharat now aims for are the Gaganyaan Mission in 2024-2025, setting up ‘Bharatiya Antariksha Station’ by 2035, and sending the first Bhartiya to Chandrama by 2040.
“We must create a continuous activity of human presence in space. Though we have a Gaganyan programme, it must continue over a long period leading up to the human landing on Chandrama . India’s landing on the Moon by 2040 looks far away, but it’s not far away. It’s so close,” Somanath said today.
“And we must build a space station by 2035, a space station that is accessible for Indians to go and do research.”
