'Chandrayan' to take off by 2007-08 :Kasturirangan

Allahabad, Nov 15 (UNI) 'Chandrayan' -- India's first unmanned mission to the moon -- is likely to take off by 2007-08, eminent scientist and former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan said here today.

Dr Kasturirangan, before delivering the Annual Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial lecture on 'Chandrayan-1: India's step in planetary exploration', said for the Rs 300 crore project some components have been borrowed from the United States, Britain and Sweden.

Dr Kasturirangan, also the Director of the National Institute of Advance Studies, added that the 'Chandrayan' was likely to reveal a lot about the moon's polar region.

''While the other moon expeditions so far have concentrated only on the equatorial region, 'Chandrayan' might come up with information regarding existence of water on its surface and also the possibility of human survival.'' he added.

The eminent scientist said the 21st century is going to be the century of the planetary exploration and India would play a key role in it.

''India has made advances in technology but the only need is to demonstrate it. The country has the capacity to send its crafts to Venus and Mars,'' he said.

In reply to a question, Dr Kasturirangan said that the interest of the new generation towards space science is increasing and the only need was that the society and parents should encourage the trend.

After taking the reigns of ISRO in 1994, Dr Kasturirangan steered the Indian Space Programme to a new horizon.

Under his leadership, the space programme witnessed several milestones including the successful launching and operationalisation of the India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and recently, the first successful flight testing of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

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