Madhavan Nair rules out manned mission in near future

Sriharikota, Jan 10 (UNI) It will be at least a decade before an Indian sets his/her foot on the moon.

Ruling out manned lunar mission in near future, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said ''it is a long way to go. A lot of technology is involved in it.'' Addressing a press conference after the successful launch of PSLV-C7 from SHAR range here, he said that the ISRO had made preliminary assessments (on manned lunar mission). ''It will be followed by a detailed study which will be out in one year,'' he said.

He said it would take at least eight to ten years for the take-off of the proposal after getting the Government's approval.

On the Chandrayaan-I mission, Mr Nair said it was basically to survey the surface of the moon and to study the meteorological condition on the lunar surface.

''We are in the process of building instruments required for it and the satellite details have been finalised,'' he said.

The main purpose was to capture the surface of the moon and ISRO was targetting to launch it in the beginning of 2008, he added.

Asked about under-utilisation of Edusat, the ISRO chief said 37 major institutions were part of it and 10,000 classrooms were wired up to it. This showed how far it had been utilised, he said.

''We want to take it to one lakh classrooms. We hope in a couple of years or so, we will have a much larger coverage,'' he added.

UNI