Space: India wants the moon

A series of weekly articles by UPI on the aerospace industries of selected countries.

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WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- The moon, it seems, is all the rage these days in terms of international space programs. China, basking in the global glow of its recent Shenzhou 5 orbital manned mission, has laid claim to a series of exploratory lunar expeditions paving the way to a base there sometime in the decade ahead. Now India has announced it, too, has set its sights on the gray dust of Luna.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee made it official this summer, announcing Project Chandrayan 1 as a state-sponsored technology goal. The satellite, which is expected to weigh about 500 kilograms (about 1,100 pounds), will be inserted into orbit around the poles of the moon within four years. The spacecraft would train its cameras and sensing equipment on the terrain below searching for water and analyzing the composition of the ancient lunar soil.

Boasting about advanced space goals -- and a lunar probe certainly would qualify as such -- is one thing. The question is, can India really do it? Does it possess the technology and programmatic experience to reach beyond Earth orbit on such a challenging mission?

It might be surprising, but a review of India's space successes and projects suggests such a flight is well within its resources and capabilities. One reason is India has committed itself to challenging space missions before -- and succeeded. Now the result of staying the difficult space course may be newfound prospects for not only scientific achievement, but also global prestige -- always a factor in space exploration.

India's government has pledged to fund the Chandrayan mission to the tune of $100 million. The Indian Space Research Organization -- the equivalent of NASA -- spends more than $6-billion per year. That amount may seem small when compared to NASA's annual $15 billion price tag, but ISRO's budget has been growing each year for more than a decade, suggesting successive administrations and Indian legislators place a high priority on space activities.

In fact, ISRO has developed one of the most advanced Earth resource satellite programs in the world. On Oct. 17, the space agency launched the Resourcesat-1 into orbit from the Satish Dhawan space center in Sriharikota. Carrying advanced cameras and equipment, the craft is the 10th in the India Remote Sensing satellite program or IRS.

Resourcesat-1 carries the most advanced equipment India has ever launched into space, including a Lidar scanner to image the Earth in three different bands in both the visible and invisible spectrum. Other sensors and recorders are capable of storing pictures that would be captured by Chandrayan and transmitting them back to ground stations when the satellite passes over India.

Equally important was the way the satellite was rocketed into space. The booster, called the PSLV -- for Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle -- is an all-Indian design and manufacturing achievement. The recent launch marked the eighth flight of the three-stage, expendable, liquid-fueled booster. But the PSLV is not India's only indigenous rocket. A larger vehicle, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, is capable of lifting both commercial satellites into high orbits and scientific probes. It, too, sports an all-Indian design. Both rockets are fired into space from several launching sites across India.

The GSLV is also available for commercial sales, and ISRO has established a consortium to market the rockets. It is roughly equal in lifting power to the U.S. Delta II series and the earlier European Ariane 4.

So if ISRO is planning to adapt some of the technology from its highly successful IRS satellites, plus using its own rockets, a moon mission would seem to fall well within its technological capabilities. Strong political commitment to space, adequate and sustained funding, satellite technology and capable boosters all give India a clear shot to steer its spacecraft into lunar orbit.

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(Editors: UPI photos WAX2003103001 and WAX2003103002 are available)