He was talking at a press briefing at the Bengaluru Space Expo organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
“We are also looking at how to collaborate with other nations. There are already discussions happening with other nations on how to work together in building Space Stations and its utilisations, and joint Missions etc,” he said.
Building the Space Station is an important activity. “With India launching several satellites, it is important to have a permanent habitat, where astronauts can go and stay. Gaganyaan programme was only a one-time Mission of sending astronauts to Space but that is not enough. We need to have a continuity of Missions. Our first Mission is still not achieved, we are already looking at how we can continue this programme,” he said.
The four projects approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday that includes Chandrayaan-4, Venus Orbiter Mission, a New Generation Launch Vehicle, and building the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (an extension of the Gaganyaan programme) has an outlay of around Rs. 22,000 crore, he said.
This long term Mission includes other goals that will inspire generations and create a technological jump in Space activities, apart from the typical activities of Isro in applications, communications and remote sensing, said Somanath.
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“The ultimate vision is to have an Indian landing on the Moon by 2040, and come back to Earth safely. We also want to have a Space Station built and operated by 2035. We need to make incremental steps in developing technologies and capabilities. The first phase will last about six to eight years for which projects have been approved,” he said.Chandrayaan-4 will be a continuation of Chandrayaan-1, 2, and 3, and there will be further missions of Chandrayaan, the Space agency head said. “We will continue to go to the Moon and create a step-by-step process,” he said.
Payload capability
Currently, India has 10 tonne payload capability, Somanath said, which will be increased to 30 tonnes with the launch of the Next Generation Launch Vehicle. “It is not just payload capability, we are looking at how to bring down the cost of access to Space substantially by bringing in modularity, reusability, etc,” he said.
Venus Orbiter Mission
Venus is important because “we have successfully gone to Mars, the Moon, and Venus is nothing different from Mars. It is our nearest planet”, said Somanath.
“Though we went to mars a little farther away Venus is closer but it is more challenging than Mars. The atmosphere of Venus has 100 times more pressure than Earth. Mars, Venus and Earth are sister planets. They look alike in terms of their size, geometry, mass, gravity and speed etc. But Earth is habitable. Why is Mars or Venus not habitable? We do not know. Tomorrow Earth may become uninhabitable due to some reasons,” he explained.
This is why the Mission to Venus has been taken up. There are other nations like the US, Russia, China and Japan. “They are also sending missions to Venus by 2028. The timeline which we have also set. We are looking at creating more knowledge about our place in the Universe. These are important missions. More will come in the coming days,” he said.
