Kalam advises ISRO, NASA on Chandrayaan-II
Kalam advises ISRO, NASA on Chandrayaan-II
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and US space agency NASA should deploy surface robotic penetrator in 'Chandrayaan-II' mission to study more about the presence of water molecules on moon, former President APJ Abdul Kalam has suggested.
"I suggested to both ISRO and NASA to work on future mission of Chandrayaan-II using moon surface robotic penetrator during my recent visit to California Institute of Technology in US, where NASA scientists presented the findings of Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) to Indian scientists," Kalam told students during an interaction on Saturday.
The missile man was in Mumbai to inaugurate the national science seminar on 'Chandrayaan: Promises and Concerns' for school students, organised by the National Council of Science Museum.
He said more validations are being carried out by the scientists on India's Moon Impact Probe (MIP) about the presence of water on lunar surface.
Kalam told students that he had also suggested space scientists to make spacecrafts weighing one-kilogram by 2050 to cut costs and bring it down to USD 2,000 from USD 20,000.
India's own device MIP on 'Chandrayaan-I' detected the presence of water on lunar surface, a finding confirmed by NASA which also had an instrument on board the craft.
The MIP while descending from Chandrayaan-I to moon, picked up strong signals of water particles giving a clear indication that hydroxil (OH) as water molecules are present on the surface.
Discovery of water on moon by Chandrayaan-I has prompted ISRO scientists to rethink on the experiments to be carried by its sequel mission scheduled for launch by 2013.
ISRO plans to land two rovers on the lunar surface as part of Chandrayaan-II besides conducting several in-orbit experiments.
"Following findings of Chandrayaan I, it would have to now look at midcourse correction of its objectives. We have to fine tune it. There is some loud thinking on the issue going on," ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair told reporters in Bangalore.
Nair indicated that scientists were exploring possibilities of equipping the lunar rover with some instruments that could dig the moon surface and carry out in-situ experiments.
While almost all experiments on Chandrayaan-II will be by Indian scientists, the lunar rover which will land on the moon will be sourced from Russia, Nair said.
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