As NASA top man lands, ISRO says after moon, may go to deep space

With Indo-US ties on a new high, the ISRO hopes to take it well beyond the planned Indian moon mission. ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair has said his organisation hopes to look at “possibilities of joint inter-planetary exploration” during the visit of NASA Administrator Michael Griffin who arrives tomorrow.

With Indo-US ties on a new high, the ISRO hopes to take it well beyond the planned Indian moon mission. ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair has said his organisation hopes to look at “possibilities of joint inter-planetary exploration” during the visit of NASA Administrator Michael Griffin who arrives tomorrow.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Madhavan Nair said: “When the US looks around for partners for future inter-planetary exploration missions, India stands a good chance because of our robust well-developed technologies.”

Tomorrow, Griffin will ink two agreements in Bangalore that will pave the way for two American payloads to be flown to the moon when India undertakes the Chandrayaan mission to the moon in 2008.

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One of the two American instruments is a sophisticated miniature radar which will, among other things, search for the elusive water on the dark side of the moon and the other payload is a remotely operated mineralogy mapper to look for Helium-3, an element rich in moon dust which could possibly be used for generating clean energy through futuristic fusion reactors.

According to Nair, it’s “a major milestone for fostering healthier relations between the two space faring nations”. India’s launch vehicles are well placed to go into deep space. Narendra Bhandari, lead scientist on Chandrayaan-I at the Planetary Science and Exploration Program in the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, said the PSLV was capable of undertaking missions for direct exploration of Mars and Venus.

pallava.bagla@expressindia.com

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