Bangalore. With India’s maiden lunar probe Chandrayaan-1 firmly in its pre-determined orbit of 100-km above the lunar surface, India has convincingly demonstrated its prowess in orbiting and navigating a deep space probe with a high degree of precision.

The success of Chandrayaan-1 mission, while catapulting India into the ranks of the elite global space club, has spurred the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to take up more ambitious projects involving planetary exploration and human space flight. And if the data transmitted by the ten scientific instruments aboard it points to the presence of minerals in general and Helium-3, a rich and green energy source, in particular, then ISRO may think in terms of collecting them and bringing them back to earth, as and when the technology for such an endeavour is put in place.

ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair points out: “If we find minerals on the moon, the next logical step would be to collect them and get them back to earth.” However, he cautions, “that may be a future mission beyond 2015.”

Clearly and apparently, ISRO is making all out efforts, well in advance to join the race for exploitation of lunar resources.

In fact, the renewed interest in exploring moon has received quickening impetus from the possible presence of minerals and ice water in the entrails of earth’s nearest celestial neighbour. Moreover, if the presence of minerals and water ice on the moon is confirmed beyond the shadow of doubt, there could be scramble for setting up a lunar base for both exploiting the resources and launching a manned expedition to the Red Planet Mars, which planetary scientists believe, could be the next outpost of human civilization beyond earth.

Not long back, former Indian President and well known aerospace and defence scientist Dr A P J Abdul Kalam had strongly pleaded for ISRO not only launching home grown probes to Mars but also joining the international initiative to explore Mars.

Meanwhile, as a follow up to Vhandrayaan-I, the Bangalore-based ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) has initiated the ground work for its second moon mission, Chandrayaan-II, during 2011-12.

While Chandrayaan-1 was a fully Indian probe with a range of home-grown and international payloads, Chandrayaan-II will be joint Indo-Russian venture, but also with international payloads.

Whereas Chandrayaan-1 was launched by means of an augmented version of the fourstage Indian space workhorse PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle), Chandrayaan-II will be hoisted into space at the top of the three stage GSLV(Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) featuring an upper cryogenic engine stage.

The data provided by the 35-kg MIP (Moon Impact Probe), an Indian built piggyback payload onboard Chandrayaan-1 which crash-landed – as planned – on the lunar surface on November 14 will help ISRO identity an ideal lunar site for the Chandrayaan-II probe.

In all probability, the Shackleton Crater in the south polar region of the moon, on which the MIP impacted, could be its potential landing site.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of USA, which announced a plan to set up
an outpost on the moon by 2020 is also considering the Shackleton crater as a possible location for its lunar base.

Chandrayaan-II will feature a spacecraft with a landing platform and a rover with a robotic arm to collect samples of soil and rock from the lunar surface.

The collected lunar samples will be subjected to in situ chemical analysis and the data transmitted to the mother spacecraft in lunar orbit. The rover, which will have a weight ranging between 30-kg and 100-kg depending on whether it would be subjected to hard landing or soft landing.

"We are looking at having a soft landing for Chandrayaan-II instead of hard landing. We should be working on technologies that will be a part of the proposed lunar base. If we were to become a developed country by 2020, it will be crucial for us to build such technologies,” says Chandrayaan-1 Project Director M Annadurai.

Without doubt, the road map charted out by ISRO strongly suggests a clear cut line of action to turn India into a global space power with its eyes firmly set on planetary outposts beyond our Mother Earth.

In fact, as a logical step beyond Chandrayaan–II, ISRO is looking at the possibility of going in for a return mission to the moon. However, right at the moment, the idea is in embryonic stage.

Observes Mr Annadurai, “We will go closer to the moon and then land on the moon and enable the technologies to move around the moon and logically extend these technologies to bring samples to the earth. If everything happens by the time researchers are ready, we will be at the point where we can together provide an energy solution for the future.”

Obviously, he was referring to the scenario of Helium-3 mining from the moon.

But then realizing a sample return mission to moon would be easier said than done.

For ISRO would need a powerful heavy lift-off vehicle with a minimum capacity to launch a 20-tonne payload into a near earth orbit. However, the GSKLV-MK-III expected for a takeoff by the end of this decade is designed to place only a 10-tonne class payload into a near earth orbit.

To fill this critical void, ISRO has initiated a project to build a semicryogenic engine-driven vehicle using refined paraffin as a fuel.

In a conventional cryogenic engine, costly liquid hydrogen is used as a fuel with oxygen as an oxidizer. The use of refined paraffin should reduce the launch cost by around 30 per cent.

According to Mr Nair, the target is to develop the semi cryogenic vehicle within six years.

Significantly, he revealed that the Thiruvananthapuram-based Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), the biggest Indian space establishment and ISRO’s lead centre for developing launch vehicles and associated technologies, is now involved in finalizing the design of semi cryogenic engine.

As for a manned mission to the moon, Mr Nair said that before thinking in terms of such an ambitious and costly mission, ISRO would need to study the technologies required for the project and the capability already built up by the Indian space agency.

However, with China already hinting at launching a manned mission to moon by 2020, India could hardly resist the temptation of going in for a manned flight to moon.

Beyond the moon, ISRO is planning to send an orbiter to Mars. Mr Nair has made it plain that though it is well within the capability of ISRO to realize a mission to moon, inputs from the scientific community of the country will be sought for giving a final shape to the Indian probe to the Red Planet.

Mr S Ramakrishnan, Director (Projects) at VSSC has observed that Mars probe studies have already been initiated and that GSLV could put a 1000-kg spacecraft into a Martian orbit.

Mr Nair has also hinted at the possibility of exploring Venus, though details were not provided. However, ISRO has already unveiled a well thought out plan for exploring the asteroid belt.

Next in the line of the exploratory gaze of ISRO is the sun. As stated by him, Aditya, a mini satellite mission whose design is just getting finalized, will study the outer region of the sun called corona. In particular, Aditya would be deployed to study the extent and effects of the next solar maximum due in 2012. The maximum is a period when the
average sunspots number over 12 months reach their highest. The last solar maximum took place in 1989.

Aditya has been described as the first attempt by the Indian scientific community to unravel the mysteries associated with the coronal mass ejection and the associated space weather process.

Moreover, the study of the solar winds set in motion by the massive heating up of gases in the coronal region would provide important information on solar activity conditions. The solar wind, consisting of electrons and protons, gives rise to violent solar storms, which have the potential to knock down power grids on earth. As such, solar coronal activities have a direct bearing on the life of the earthlings.

The first Indian manned mission planned for takeoff in 2015 is slowly becoming an area of focus for ISRO.

Mr Nair says that there is a clarity on the roadmap for the project such as the technologies required, extent of funding and the agencies who would participate. In fact, between 2003 and 2007, ISRO had carried out extensive studies to analyze the technological challenges involved in the proposed manned mission.