India is aiming to become the second country to put humans on the lunar surface after announcing plans to send an astronaut to the moon by 2040.
Prime minister Narendra Modi also vowed to build the nation’s first space station within 12 years and asked scientists to work on missions to Venus and Mars.
If the Indian government is to follow in the footsteps of the US – which is planning to return astronauts to the moon as part of its Artemis III landing mission in 2025 – it will also have to fight off stiff competition from China.
Beijing has set an ambitious target of putting its taikonauts on the lunar surface by 2030.
What will be most interesting about the Indian venture is if the country can maintain its reputation of being frugal when it comes to moon missions.
Ambitious: India is aiming to become the second country to put humans on the lunar surface after announcing plans to send an astronaut to the moon by 2040. Pictured is a view of the moon from India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander, which landed at the lunar south pole in August
Setting out a plan: Prime minister Narendra Modi also vowed to build the nation’s first space station within 12 years and asked scientists to work on missions to Venus and Mars
In August, India became the first nation to land a spacecraft on our lunar satellite’s south pole, in a mission that was not only historic but also budget friendly.
Coming in at about $74 million (£61 million), the venture cost less than half what Russia put into its rival south pole lander — a $200 million (£164 million) mission that ended in failure when it crashed into the moon days before India’s successful landing.
No financial details have yet been revealed about how much India plans to spend on building a space station and putting an astronaut on the moon.
However, this is in keeping with how tight-lipped the country has remained on its budgeting for space missions.
Asked earlier this year how they managed to keep costs so low for the Chandrayaan-3 mission, S. Somanath, the director of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told reporters with a laugh: ‘I won’t disclose such secrets.
‘We don’t want everyone else to become so cost-effective.’
It is unclear exactly how the ISRO came to its estimate of $74 million (£61 million) for the Chandrayaan-3 venture, partly because, unlike the US, India doesn’t like to give away too much by way of financial information.
NASA, by contrast, is required to publish detailed budget proposals because it is a publicly-funded organisation.
It is also fair to point out that Chandrayaan-3 was a follow-up to the failed Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019, meaning the cost of research, development, and testing that went into that attempt may not be included in the estimate for the successful landing.
Nevertheless, India has certainly adopted an approach of trying to be as frugal as possible — particularly with a strategy of keeping its spacecraft small and light so as to slash launch costs.
It also launched Chandrayaan-3 using a much less powerful rocket than other countries, meaning it took the lander a lot longer to reach the moon because it first had to build up speed by taking large elliptical orbits around the Earth.
Whether a similar approach can be achieved with a human mission, the world will have to wait and see.
Cost effective: What will be most interesting about the Indian venture is if the country can maintain its reputation of being frugal when it comes to moon missions. Pictured is the launch of Chandrayaan-3
‘Prime minister directed that India should now aim for new and ambitious goals, including setting up “Bharatiya Antariksha Station” (Indian Space Station) by 2035 and sending first Indian to the moon by 2040,’ the Indian government said in a statement.
‘To realise this vision, the Department of Space will develop a roadmap for moon exploration,’ it added.
This roadmap will include developing a next-generation launch vehicle, constructing a new launch pad and a series of future Chandrayaan missions, the government said.
Modi also called on Indian scientists to undertake interplanetary missions, including a Venus Orbiter Mission and a Mars Lander.
In the meantime, ISRO is working on its Gaganyaan project, which aims to send three astronauts to an orbit of 248 miles (400km) above the Earth before bringing them back down to Indian waters three days later.
This is planned for 2024 or 2025, although there are still several test flights which need to be successfully carried out before a manned mission can be approved.
‘We believe today’s announcement of timelines by the Prime Minister will steadfast India’s commitment to bring about our new lease of possibilities for our country in space and drive innovation in this new journey,’ said Indian Space Association director general Lt. Gen. AK Bhatt.
‘This will also pave the way for our private space players to contribute to the growing developments in the space sector of our country.’